THE  STORY  OF  THE  PONY 
EXPRESS 


THE  STORY  OF 

THE    PONY    EXPRESS 

An  account  of  the  most  remarkable  mail  service 

ever  in  existence,  and  its  place 

in  history 


BY 

GLENN  D.  BRADLEY 
Author  of  Winning'  the  Southwest 


ILLUSTRATED 


CHICAGO 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1913 


tr 


Copyright 

A.  C.  McCLURG  &  CO. 
1913 


Published  October,  1913 


.   F.  HALL  PRINTING  COMPANY,  CHICAQO 


TO  MY  PARENTS 


281448 


PREFACE 

This  little  volume  has  but  one  purpose 
—  to  give  an  authentic,  useful,  and  read- 
able account  of  the  Pony  Express.  This 
wonderful  enterprise  played  an  important 
part  in  history,  and  demonstrated  what 
American  spirit  can  accomplish.  It  showed 
that  the  "  heroes  of  sixty-one  "  were  not 
all  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  fight- 
ing each  other.  And,  strange  to  say,  little 
of  a  formal  nature  has  been  written  con- 
cerning it. 

I  have  sought  to  bring  to  light  and  make 
accessible  to  all  readers  the  more  important 
facts  of  the  Pony  Express  —  its  inception, 
organization  and  development,  its  im- 
portance to  history,  its  historical  back- 


PREFACE 

ground,  and  some  of  the  anecdotes  inci- 
dental to  its  operation. 

The  subject  leads  one  into  a  wide  range 
of  fascinating  material,  all  interesting 
though  much  of  it  is  irrelevant.  In  it- 
self this  material  is  fragmentary  and  in- 
coherent. It  would  be  quite  easy  to  fill 
many  pages  with  western  adventure  having 
no  special  bearing  upon  the  central  topic. 
While  I  have  diverged  occasionally  from 
the  thread  of  the  narrative,  my  purpose 
has  been  merely  to  give  where  possible 
more  background  to  the  story,  that  the 
account  as  a  whole  might  be  more  under- 
standable in  its  relation  to  the  general  facts 
of  history. 

Special  acknowledgment  is  due  Frank 
A.  Root  of  Topeka,  Kansas,  joint  author 
with  William  E.  Connelley  of  tfhe  Over- 
land Stage  tfo  California,  an  excellent 
compendium  of  data  on  many  phases  of 


PREFACE 

the  subject.  In  preparing  this  work,  va- 
rious Senate  Documents  have  been  of  great 
value.  Some  interesting  material  is  found 
in  Inman  and  Cody's  Salt  Lake  tfrail. 

The  files  of  the  Century  Magazine,  old 
newspaper  files,  Bancroft's  colossal  history 
of  the  West  and  the  works  of  Samuel  L. 
Clemens  have  also  been  of  value  in  com- 
piling the  present  book. 

G.  D.  B. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     AT  A  NATION'S  CRISIS 1 

II     INCEPTION     AND     ORGANIZA- 
TION OF  THE  PONY  EXPRESS     9 

III  THE  FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH  28 

IV  OPERATION,  EQUIPMENT,  AND 

BUSINESS 52 

V     CALIFORNIA   AND  THE  SECES- 
SION MENACE 74 

VI     RIDERS  AND  FAMOUS  RIDES.  .  .  100 
VII     ANECDOTES  OF  THE  TRAIL  AND 

HONOR  ROLL 121 

VIII     EARLY    OVERLAND    MAIL 

ROUTES 138 

IX     PASSING   OF    THE    PONY    EX- 
PRESS   165 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Transportation  and  communication  across 
the  plains  Frontispiece 

"A  whiz  and  a  hail,  and  the  swift  phan- 
tom of  the  desert  was  gone."  ...  72 


THE  STORY  OF  THE 

PONY   EXPRESS 


CHAPTER  I 

AT  A  NATION'S  CRISIS 

THE  Pony  Express  was  the  first  rapid 
transit  and  the  first  fast  mail  line 
across  the  continent  from  the  Missouri 
River  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  It  was  a  sys- 
tem by  means  of  which  messages  were  car- 
ried swiftly  on  horseback  across  the  plains 
and  deserts,  and  over  the  mountains  of  the 
far  West.  It  brought  the  Atlantic  coast 
and  the  Pacific  slope  ten  days  nearer  to 
each  other. 

It  had  a  brief  existence  of  only  sixteen 
months  and  was  supplanted  by  the  trans- 
continental telegraph.    Yet  it  was  of  the 
1 


2  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

greatest  importance  in  binding  the  East 
and  West  together  at  a  time  when  over- 
land travel  was  slow  and  cumbersome,  and 
when  a  great  national  crisis  made  the 
rapid  communication  of  news  between 
these  sections  an  imperative  necessity. 

The  Pony  Express  marked  the  highest 
development  in  overland  travel  prior  to 

I  J  the  coming  of  the  Pacific  railroad,  which 
it  preceded  nine  years.  It,  in  fact,  proved 
the  feasibility  of  a  transcontinental  road 
and  demonstrated  that  such  a  line  could 
be  built  and  operated  continuously  the 
year  around  —  a  feat  that  had  always 

\     been  regarded  as  impossible. 

The  operation  of  the  Pony  Express 
was  a  supreme  achievement  of  physical 
endurance  on  the  part  of  man  and  his 
ever  faithful  companion,  the  horse.  The 
history  of  this  organization  should  be  a 
lasting  monument  to  the  physical  sacri- 


AT  A  NATION'S  CRISIS  3 

fice  of  man  and  beast  in  an  effort  to  ac- 
complish something  worth  while.  Its 
history  should  be  an  enduring  tribute  to 
American  courage  and  American  organ- 
izing genius. 

The  fall  of  Fort  Sumter  in  April,  1861, 
did  not  produce  the  Civil  War  crisis.  For 
many  months,  the  gigantic  struggle  then 
imminent,  had  been  painfully  discernible 
to  far-seeing  men.  In  1858,  Lincoln  had 
forewarned  the  country  in  his  "  House 
Divided  "  speech.  As  early  as  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1860  the  Union  had 
been  plainly  in  jeopardy.  Early  in  Feb- 
ruary of  that  momentous  year,  Jefferson 
Davis,  on  behalf  of  the  South,  had  intro- 
duced his  famous  resolutions  in  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States.  This  document 
was  the  ultimatum  of  the  dissatisfied  slave- 
holding  commonwealths.  It  demanded 
that  Congress  should  protect  slavery 


4  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

0 

throughout  the  domain  of  the  United 
States.  The  territories,  it  declared,  were 
the  common  property  of  the  states  of  the 
Union  and  hence  open  to  the  citizens  of 
all  states  with  all  their  personal  posses- 
sions. The  Northern  states,  furthermore, 
were  no  longer  to  interfere  with  the  work- 
ing of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  They  must 
repeal  their  Personal  Liberty  laws  and 
respect  the  Dred  Scott  Decision  of  the 
Federal  Supreme  Court.  Neither  in 
their  own  legislatures  nor  in  Congress 
should  they  trespass  upon  the  right  of  the 
South  to  regulate  slavery  as  it  best  saw  fit. 
These  resolutions,  demanding  in  effect 
that  slavery  be  thus  safeguarded  —  al- 
most to  the  extent  of  introducing  it  into 
the  free  states  —  really  foreshadowed  the 
Democratic  platform  of  1860  which  led 
to  the  great  split  in  that  party,  the  victory 
of  the  Republicans  under  Lincoln,  the  sub- 


AT  A  NATION'S  CRISIS  5 

sequent  secession  of  the  more  radical 
southern  states,  and  finally  the  Civil  War, 
for  it  was  inevitable  that  the  North,  when 
once  aroused,  would  bitterly  resent  such 
pro-slavery  demands. 

And  this  great  crisis  was  only  the  burst- 
ing into  flame  of  many  smaller  fires  that 
had  long  been  smoldering.  For  genera- 
tions the  two  sections  had  been  drifting 
apart.  Since  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
had  been  a  line  of  real  division  separating 
two  inherently  distinct  portions  of  the 
country. 

By  1860,  then,  war  was  inevitable. 
Naturally,  the  conflict  would  at  once 
present  intricate  military  problems,  and 
among  them  the  retention  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  was  of  the  deepest  concern  to  the 
Union.  Situated  at  a  distance  of  nearly 
two  thousand  miles  from  the  Missouri 


6  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

river  which  was  then  the  nation's  western 
frontier,  this  intervening  space  comprised 
trackless  plains,  almost  impenetrable 
ranges  of  snow-capped  mountains,  and 
parched  alkali  deserts.  And  besides  these 
barriers  of  nature  which  lay  between  the 
West  coast  and  the  settled  eastern  half  of 
the  country,  there  were  many  fierce  tribes 
of  savages  who  were  usually  on  the  alert 
to  oppose  the  movements  of  the  white  race 
through  their  dominions. 

California,  even  then,  was  the  jewel  of 
the  Pacific.  Having  a  considerable  popu- 
lation, great  natural  wealth,  and  unsur- 
passed climate  and  fertility,  she  was 
jealously  desired  by  both  the  North  and 
the  South. 

To  the  South,  the  acquisition  of  Cali- 
fornia meant  enhanced  prestige  —  involv- 
ing, as  it  would,  the  occupation  of  a 
large  area  whose  soils  and  climate  might 


AT  A  NATION'S  CRISIS  7 

encourage  the  perpetuation  of  slavery;  it 
meant  a  rich  possession  which  would  afford 
her  a  strategic  base  for  waging  war  against 
her  northern  foe;  it  meant  a  romantic  field 
in  which  opportunity  might  be  given  to 
organize  an  allied  republic  of  the  Pacific, 
a  power  which  would,  perchance,  forcibly 
absorb  the  entire  Southwest  and  a  large 
section  of  Northern  Mexico.  By  thus 
creating  counter  forces  the  South  would 
effectively  block  the  Federal  Government 
on  the  western  half  of  the  continent. 

The  North  also  desired  the  prestige  that 
would  come  from  holding  California  as 
well  as  the  material  strength  inherent  in 
the  state's  valuable  resources.  Moreover 
to  hold  this  region  would  give  the  North  a 
base  of  operations  to  check  her  opponent 
in  any  campaign  of  aggression  in  the  far 
West,  should  the  South  presume  such  an 
attempt.  And  the  possession  of  California 


8  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

would  also  offer  to  the  North  the  very  best 
means  of  protecting  the  Western  frontier, 
one  of  the  Union's  most  vulnerable  points 
of  attack. 

It  was  with  such  vital  conditions  that 
the  Pony  Express  was  identified ;  it  was  in 
retaining  California  for  the  Union,  and  in 
helping  incidentally  to  preserve  the  Union, 
that  the  Express  became  an  important 
factor  in  American  history. 

Not  to  mention  the  romance,  the  unsur- 
passed courage,  the  unflinching  endurance, 
and  the  wonderful  exploits  which  the 
routine  operations  of  the  Pony  Express 
involved,  its  identity  with  problems  of 
nation-wide  and  world-wide  importance 
make  its  story  seem  worth  telling.  And 
with  its  romantic  existence  and  its  place  in 
history  the  succeeding  pages  of  this  book 
will  briefly  deal. 


CHAPTER  II 

INCEPTION  AND  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE 
PONY   EXPRESS 

FOLLOWING  the  discovery  of  gold  in 
California  in  January  1848,  that  re- 
gion sprang  into  immediate  prominence. 
From  all  parts  of  the  country  and  the  re- 
mote corners  of  the  earth  came  the  famous 
Forty-niners.  Amid  the  chaos  of  a  great 
mining  camp  the  Anglo-Saxon  love  of  law 
and  order  soon  asserted  itself.  Civil  and 
religious  institutions  quickly  arose,  and,  in 
the  summer  of  1850,  a  little  more  than  a 
year  after  the  big  rush  had  started,  Cali- 
fornia entered  the  Union  as  a  free  state. 

The  boom  went  on  and  the  census  of 
1860  revealed  a  population  of  380,000  in 
the  new  commonwealth.     And  when  to 
9 


10  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

these  figures  were  added  those  of  Oregon 
and  Washington  Territory,  an  aggregate 
.of  444,000  citizens  of  the  United  States 
were  found  to  be  living  on  the  Pacific 
Slope.  Crossing  the  Sierras  eastward  and 
into  the  Great  Basin,  47,000  more  were 
located  in  the  Territories  of  Nevada  and 
Utah, —  thus  making  a  grand  total  of 
nearly  a  half  million  people  beyond  the 
Rocky  Mountains  in  1860.  And  these 
figures  did  not  include  Indians  nor  Chinese. 
Without  reference  to  any  military  phase 
of  the  problem,  this  detached  population 
obviously  demanded  and  deserved  adequate 
mail  and  transportation  facilities.  How 
to  secure  the  quickest  and  most  depend- 
able communication  with  the  populous 
sections  of  the  East  had  long  been  a  serious 
proposition.  Private  corporations  and 
Congress  had  not  been  wholly  insensible 
to  the  needs  of  the  West.  Subsidized  stage 


ORGANIZATION  11 

routes  had  for  some  years  been  in  opera- 
tion, and  by  the  close  of  1858  several  lines 
were  well-equipped  and  doing  much 
business  over  the  so-called  Southern  and 
Central  routes.  Perhaps  the  most  com- 
mon route  for  sending  mail  from  the  East 
to  the  Pacific  Coast  was  by  steamship  from 
New  York  to  Panama  where  it  was  un- 
loaded, hurried  across  the  Isthmus,  and 
again  shipped  by  water  to  San  Francisco. 
All  these  lines  of  traffic  were  slow  and 
tedious,  a  letter  in  any  case  requiring  from 
three  to  four  weeks  to  reach  its  destination. 
The  need  of  a  more  rapid  system  of  com- 
munication between  the  East  and  West  at 
once  became  apparent  and  it  was  to  supply 
this  need  that  the  Pony  Express  really 
came  into  existence. 

The  story  goes  that  in  the  autumn  of 
1854,  United  States  Senator  William 
Gwin  of  California  was  making  an  over- 


12  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

land  trip  on  horseback  from  San  Francisco 
to  Washington,  D.  C.  He  was  following 
the  Central  route  via  Salt  Lake  and  South 
Pass,  and  during  a  portion  of  his  journey 
he  had  for  a  traveling  companion,  Mr.  B. 
%F.  Ficklin,  then  General  Superintendent 
for  the  big  freighting  and  stage  firm  of 
Russell,  Majors,  and  Waddell  of  Leaven- 
worth.  Ficklin,  it  seems,  was  a  resource- 
ful and  progressive  man,  and  had  long 
been  engaged  in  the  overland  transporta- 
tion business.  He  had  already  conceived 
an  idea  for  establishing  a  much  closer 
transit  service  between  the  Missouri  river 
and  the  Coast,  but,  as  is  the  case  with 
many  innovators,  had  never  gained  a 
serious  hearing.  He  had  the  traffic  agent's 
natural  desire  to  better  the  existing  service 
in  the  territory  which  his  line  served;  and 
he  had  the  ambition  of  a  loyal  employee 
to  put  into  effect  a  plan  that  would  bring 


ORGANIZATION  13 

added  honor  and  preferment  to  his  firm. 
In  addition  to  possessing  these  worthy 
ideals,  it  is  perhaps  not  unfair  to  state 
that  Ficklin  was  personally  ambitious. 

Nevertheless,  Ficklin  confided  his 
scheme  enthusiastically  to  Senator  Gwin, 
at  the  same  time  pointing  out  the  benefits 
that  would  accrue  to  California  should  it 
ever  be  put  into  execution.  The  Senator 
at  once  saw  the  merits  of  the  plan  and 
quickly  caught  the  contagion.  Not  only 
was  he  enough  of  a  statesman  to  appreciate 
the  worth  of  a  fast  mail  line  across  the 
continent,  but  he  was  also  a  good  enough  \ 
politician  to  realize  that  his  position  with 
his  constituents  and  the  country  at  large 
might  be  greatly  strengthened  were  he  to 
champion  the  enactment  of  a  popular 
measure  that  would  encourage  the  build- 
ing of  such  a  line  through  the  aid  of  a 
Federal  subsidy. 


14  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

So  in  January,  1855,  Gwin  introduced 
in  the  Senate  a  bill  which  proposed  to 
establish  a  weekly  letter  express  service 
between  St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco.  The 
express  was  to  operate  on  a  ten-day  sched- 
ule, follow  the  Central  Route,  and  was  to 
receive  a  compensation  not  exceeding 
$500.00  for  each  round  trip.  This  bill 
was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Military 
Affairs  where  it  was  quietly  tabled  and 
"  killed." 

For  the  next  five  years  the  attention  of 
Congress  was  largely  taken  up  with  the 
anti-slavery  troubles  that  led  to  secession 
and  war.  Although  the  people  of  the 
West,  and  the  Pacific  Coast  in  particular, 
continued  to  agitate  the  need  of  a  new  and 
quick  through  mail  service,  for  a  long  time 
little  was  done.  It  has  been  claimed  that 
southern  representatives  in  Congress  during 
the  decade  before  the  war  managed  to  pre- 


ORGANIZATION  15 

vent  any  legislation  favorable  to  overland 
mail  routes  running  No'rth  of  the  slave- 
holding  states;  and  that  they  concentrated 
their  strength  to  render  government  aid  to 
the  southern  routes  whenever  possible. 

At  that  time  there  were  three  generally 
recognized  lines  of  mail  traffic,  of  which 
the  Panama  line  was  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant. Next  came  the  so-called  southern 
or  "  Butterfield  "  route  which  started  from 
St.  Louis  and  ran  far  to  the  southward, 
entering  California  from  the  extreme 
southeast  corner  of  the  state;  a  goodly 
amount  of  mail  being  sent  in  this  direction. 
The  Central  route  followed  the  Platte 
River  into  Wyoming  and  reached  Sacra- 
mento via  Salt  Lake  City,  almost  from  a 
due  easterly  direction.  On  account  of  its 
location  this  route  or  trail  could  be  easily 
controlled  by  the  North  in  case  of  war. 
It  had  received  very  meagre  support  from 


16  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

the  Government,  and  carried  as  a  rule,  only 
local  mail.  While  the  most  direct  route 
to  San  Francisco,  it  had  been  rendered  the 
least  important.  This  was  not  due  solely 
to  Congressional  manipulation.  Because 
of  its  northern  latitude  and  the  numerous 
high  mountain  ranges  it  traversed,  this 
course  was  often  blockaded  with  deep 
snows  and  was  generally  regarded  as  ex- 
tremely difficult  of  access  during  the  winter 
months. 

While  a  majority  of  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia were  loyal  to  the  Union,  there  was 
a  vigorous  minority  intensely  in  sympathy 
with  the  southern  cause  and  ready  to  con- 
spire for,  or  bring  about  by  force  of  arms 
if  necessary,  the  secession  of  their  state.  As 
the  Civil  War  became  more  and  more  im- 
minent, it  became  obvious  to  Union  men 
in  both  East  and  West  that  the  existing 
lines  of  communication  were  untrust- 


ORGANIZATION  17 

worthy.  Just  as  soon  as  trouble  should 
start,  the  Confederacy  could,  and  most 
certainly  would,  gain  control  of  the  south- 
ern mail  routes.  Once  in  control,  she  could 
isolate  the  Pacific  coast  for  many  months 
and  thus  enable  her  sympathizers  there 
the  more  effectually  to  perfect  their  plans 
of  secession.  Or  she  might  take  advantage 
of  these  lines  of  travel,  and,  by  striking 
swiftly  and  suddenly,  organize  and  rein- 
force her  followers  in  California,  in- 
timidate the  Unionists,  many  of  whom 
were  apathetic,  and  by  a  single  bold  stroke 
snatch  the  prize  away  from  her  antagonist 
[before  the  latter  should  have  had  time  to 
jact. 

To  avert  this  crisis  some  daring  and 
joriginal  plan  of  communication  had  to  be 
organized  to  keep  the  East  and  West  in 
close  contact  with  each  other;  and  the 
Pony  Express  was  the  fulfillment  of  such  a 


18  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

plan,  for  it  made  a  ciose  cooperation  be- 
tween the  California  loyalists  and  the 
Federal  Government  possible  until  after 
the  crisis  did  pass.  Yet,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  this  providential  enterprise  was  not 
brought  into  existence  nor  even  materially 
aided  by  the  Government.  It  was  organ- 
ized and  operated  by  a  private  corporation 
after  having  been  encouraged  in  its  incep- 
tion by  a  United  States  Senator  who  later 
turned  traitor  to  his  country. 

It  finally  happened  that  in  the  winter 
of  1859-60,  Mr.  William  Russell,  senior 
partner  of  the  firm  of  Russell,  Majors,  and 
Waddell,  was  called  to  Washington  in  con- 
nection with  some  Government  freight 
contracts.  While  there  he  chanced  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  Senator  Gwin  who, 
having  been  aroused,  as  we  have  seen, 
several  years  before,  by  one  of  the  firm's 
subordinates,  at  once  brought  before  Mr. 


ORGANIZATION  19 

Russell  the  need  of  better  mail  connections 
over  the  Central  route,  and  of  the  especial 
need  of  better  communication  should  war 
occur. 

Russell  at  once  awoke  to  the  situation. 
While  a  loyal  citizen  and  fully  alive  to  the 
strategic  importance  which  the  matter  in- 
volved, he  also  believed  that  he  saw  a  good 
business  opening.  Could  his  firm  but 
grasp  the  opportunity,  and  demonstrate 
the  possibility  of  keeping  the  Central  route 
open  during  the  winter  months,  and  could 
they  but  lower  the  schedule  of  the  Panama 
line,  a  Government  contract  giving  them 
a  virtual  monopoly  in  carrying  the  trans- 
continental mail  might  eventually  be 
theirs. 

He  at  once  hurried  West,  and  at  Fort 
Leavenworth  met  'his  partners,  Messrs. 
Majors  and  Waddell,  to  whom  he  con- 
fidently submitted  the  new  proposition. 


20  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Much  to  Russell's  chagrin,  these  gentle- 
men were  not  elated  over  the  plan.  While 
passively  interested,  they  keenly  foresaw 
the  great  cost  which  a  year  around  over- 
land fast  mail  service  would  involve. 
They  were  unable  to  see  any  chance  of  the 
enterprise  paying  expenses,  to  say  nothing 
of  profits.  But  Russell,  with  cheerful 
optimism,  contended  that  while  the  project 
might  temporarily  be  a  losing  venture,  it 
would  pay  out  in  time.  He  asserted  that 
the  opportunity  of  making  good  with  a 
hard  undertaking  —  one  that  had  been 
held  impossible  of  realization  —  would  be 
a  strong  asset  to  the  firm's  reputation.  He 
also  declared  that  in  his  conversation  with 
Gwin  he  had  already  committed  their  com- 
pany to  the  undertaking,  and  he  did  not 
see  how  they  could,  with  honor  and  propri- 
ety, evade  the  responsibility  of  attempting 
it.  Knowledge  of  the  last  mentioned  fact 


ORGANIZATION  21 

at  once  enlisted  the  support  01  his  partners. 
Probably  no  firm  has  ever  surpassed  in 
integrity  that  of  Russell,  Majors,  and 
Waddell,  famous  throughout  the  West  in 
the  freighting  and  mail  business  before  the 
advent  of  railroads  in  that  section  of  the 
country.  With  these  men,  the  verbal 
promise  of  one  of  their  number  was  a  bind- 
ing guarantee  and  as  sacredly  respected  as 
a  bonded  obligation.  Finding  themselves 
thus  committed,  they  at  once  began 
preparations  with  tremendous  activity. 
All  this  happened  early  in  the  year  1860. 
The  first  step  was  to  form  a  corporation, 
the  more  adequately  to  conduct  the  enter- 
prise; and  to  that  end  the  Central  Over- 
land California  and  Pike's  Peak  Express 
Company  was  organized  under  a  charter 
granted  by  the  Territory  of  Kansas.  Be- 
sides the  three  original  members  of  the 
firm,  the  incorporators  included  General 


m  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Superintendent  B.  F.  Ficklin,  together 
with  F.  A.  Bee,  W.  W.  Finney,  and  John 
S.  Jones,  all  tried  and  trustworthy  stage 
employees  who  were  retained  on  account 
of  their  wide  experience  in  the  overland 
traffic  busine&.  The  new  concern  then 
took  over  the  old  stage  line  from  Atchison 
to  Salt  Lake  City  and  purchased  the  mail 
route  and  outfit  then  operating  between 
Salt  Lake  City  and  Sacramento.  The 
latter,  which  had  been  running  a  monthly 
round  trip  stage  between  these  terminals, 
was  known  as  the  West  End  Division  of 
the  Central  Route,  and  was  called  the 

Chorpenning  line. 

-A 

Besides  conducting  the  Pony  Express, 
the  corporation  aimed  to  continue  a  large 
passenger  and  freighting  business,  so  it 
next  absorbed  the  Leavenworth  and  Pike's 
Peak  Express  Co.,  which  had  been  organ- 
ized a  year  previously  and  had  maintained 


ORGANIZATION  23 

a  daily  stage  between  Leavenworth  and 
Denver,  on  the  Smoky  Hill  River 
Route. 

By  mutual  agreement,  Mr.  Russell 
assumed  managerial  charge  of  the  Eastern 
Division  of  the  Pony  Express  line  which 
lay  between  St.  Joseph  and  Salt  Lake  City. 
Ficklin  was  stationed  at  Salt  Lake  City, 
the  middle  point,  in  a  similar  capacity. 
Finney  was  made  Western  manager  with 
headquarters  at  San  Francisco.  These 
men  now  had  to  revise  the  route  to  be 
traversed,  equip  it  with  relay  or  relief  sta- 
tions which  must  be  provisioned  for  men 
and  horses,  hire  dependable  men  as  station- 
keepers  and  riders,  and  buy  high  grade 
horses*  or  ponies  for  the  entire  course, 

*  While  always  called  the  Pony  Express,  there 
were  many  blooded  horses  as  well  as  ponies  in  the 
service.  The  distinction  between  these  types  of  ani- 
mals is  of  course  well  known  to  the  average  reader. 
Probably  "Pony"  Express  "sounded  better"  than 


24  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

nearly  two  thousand  miles  in  extent.  Be- 
tween St.  Joseph  and  Salt  Lake  City,  the 
company  had  its  old  stage  route  which  was 
already  well  supplied  with  stations.  West 
of  Salt  Lake  the  old  Chorpenning  route 
had  been  poorly  equipped,  which  made  it 
necessary  to  erect  new  stations  over  much 
of  this  course  of  more  than  seven  hundred 
miles.  The  entire  line  of  travel  had  to  be 
altered  in  many  places,  in  some  instances 
to  shorten  the  distance,  and  in  others,  to 
avoid  as  much  as  possible,  wild  places 
where  Indians  might  easily  ambush  the 
riders. 

The  management  was  fortunate  in 
having  the  assistance  of  expert  subor- 
dinates. A.  B.  Miller  of  Leavenworth,  a 
noteworthy  employe  of  the  original  firm, 

any  other  name  for  the  service,  hence  the  adoption 
of  this  name  by  the  firm  and  the  public  at  large.  This 
book  will  use  the  words  horse  and  pony  indiscrimi- 
nately. 


ORGANIZATION  85 

was  invaluable  in  helping  to  formulate  the 
general  plans  of  organization.  At  Salt 
Lake  City,  Ficklin  secured  the  services  of 
J.  C.  Brumley,  resident  agent  of  the  com- 
pany, whose  vast  knowledge  of  the  route 
and  the  country  that  it  covered  enabled 
him  quickly  to  work  out  a  schedule,  and  to 
ascertain  with  remarkable  accuracy  the 
number  of  relay  and  supply  stations,  their 
best  location,  and  also  the  number  of 
horses  and  men  needed.  At  Carson  City, 
Nevada,  Bolivar  Roberts,  local  superin- 
tendent of  the  Western  Division,  hired 
upwards  of  sixty  riders,  cool-headed  nervy 
men,  hardened  by  years  of  life  in  the  open. 
Horses  were  purchased  throughout  the 
West.  They  were  the  best  that  money 
could  buy  and  ranged  from  tough  Cali- 
fornia cayuses  or  mustangs  to  thorough- 
bred stock  from  Iowa.  They  were  bought 
at  an  average  figure  of  $200.00  each,  a 


80  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

high  price  in  those  days.  The  men  were 
the  pick  of  the  frontier;  no  more  expressive 
description  of  their  qualities  can  be  given. 
They  were  hired  at  salaries  varying  from 
$50.00  to  $150.00  per  month,  the  riders 
receiving  the  highest  pay  of  any  below 
executive  rank.  When  fully  equipped, 
the  line  comprised  190  stations,  about 
420  horses,  400  station  men  and  assistants 
and  eighty  riders.  These  are  approximate 
figures,  as  they  varied  slightly  from  time 
to  time. 

Perfecting  these  plans  and  assembling 
this  array  of  splendid  equipment  had  been 
no  easy  task,  yet  so  well  had  the  organizers 
understood  their  business,  and  so  persist- 
ently, yet  quietly,  had  they  worked,  that 
they  accomplished  their  purpose  and  made 
ready  within  two  months  after  the  project 
had  been  launched.  The  public  was 
scarcely  aware  of  what  was  going  on  until 


ORGANIZATION  27 

conspicuous  advertisements  announced 
the  Pony  Express.  It  was  planned  to 
open  the  line  early  in  April. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH 

ON  MARCH  26,  1860,  there  appeared 
simultaneously  in  the  St.  Louis  Re- 
public and  the  New  Tork  Herald  the  fol- 
lowing notice : 

To  San  Francisco  in  8  days  by  the  Central 
Overland  California  and  Pike's  Peak  Express 
Company.  The  first  courier  of  the  Pony  Ex- 
press will  leave  the  Missouri  River  on  Tues- 
day April  3rd  at  5  o'clock  P.  M.  and  will  run 
regularly  weekly  hereafter,  carrying  a  letter 
mail  only.  The  point  of  departure  on  the 
Missouri  River  will  be  in  telegraphic  connec- 
tion with  the  East  and  will  be  announced  in 
due  time. 

Telegraphic  messages  from  all  parts  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  in  connection  with 
the  point  of  departure  will  be  received  up  to  5 
o'clock  P.  M.  of  the  day  of  leaving  and  trans- 
mitted over  the  Placerville  and  St.  Joseph 
28 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     29 

telegraph  wire  to  San  Francisco  and  inter- 
mediate points  by  the  connecting  express,  in 
8  days.  I 

The  letter  mail  will  be  delivered  in  San 
Francisco  in  ten  days  from  the  departure  of  the 
Express.  The  Express  passes  through  Forts 
Kearney,  Laramie,  Bridger,  Great  Salt  Lake 
City,  Camp  Floyd,  Carson  City,  The  Washoe 
Silver  Mines,  Placerville,  and  Sacramento. 

Letters  for  Oregon,  Washington  Territory, 
British  Columbia,  the  Pacific  Mexican  ports, 
Russian  Possessions,  Sandwich  Islands,  China, 
Japan  and  India  will  be  mailed  in  San 
Francisco. 

Special  messengers,  bearers  of  letters  to  con- 
nect with  the  express  the  3rd  of  April,  will 
receive  communications  for  the  courier  of  that 
day  at  No.  481  Tenth  St.,  Washington  City, 
up  to  2 145  P.  M.  on  Friday,  March  30,  and  in 
New  York  at  the  office  of  J.  B.  Simpson,  Room 
No.  8,  Continental  Bank  Building,  Nassau 
Street,  up  to  6:30  A.  M.  of  March  31. 

Full  particulars  can  be  obtained  on  applica- 
tion at  the  above  places  and  from  the  agents 
of  the  Company. 

This  sudden  announcement  of  the  long 
desired  fast  mail  route  aroused  great 


80  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

enthusiasm  in  the  West  and  especially  in 
St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
the  cities  of  California,  where  preparations 
to  celebrate  the  opening  of  the  line  were 
at  once  begun.  Slowly  the  time  passed, 
until  the  afternoon  of  the  eventful  day, 
April  3rd,  that  was  to  mark  the  first  step 
in  annihilating  distance  between  the  East 
and  West.  A  great  crowd  had  assembled 
on  the  streets  of  St.  Joseph,  Missouri. 
Flags  were  flying  and  a  brass  band  added 
to  the  jubilation.  The  Hannibal  and  St. 
Joseph  Railroad  had  arranged  to  run  a 
special  train  into  the  city,  bringing  the 
through  mail  from  connecting  points  in 
the  East.  Everybody  was  anxious  and 
excited.  At  last  the  shrill  whistle  of  a 
locomotive  was  heard,  and  the  train 
rumbled  in  —  on  time.  The  pouches  were 
rushed  to  the  post  office  where  the  express 
mail  was  made  ready. 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     31 

The  people  now  surge  about  the  old 
"  Pike's  Peak  Livery  Stables,"  just  South 
of  Pattee  Park.  All  are  hushed  with  sub- 
dued expectancy.  As  the  moment  of  de- 
parture approaches,  the  doors  swing  open 
and  a  spirited  horse  is  led  out.  Nearby, 
closely  inspecting  the  animal's  equipment 
is  a  wiry  little  man  scarcely  twenty  years 
old. 

Time  to  go !  Everybody  back !  A  pause 
of  seconds,  and  a  cannon  booms  in  the 
distance  —  the  starting  signal.  The  rider 
leaps  to  his  saddle  and  starts.  In  less  than 
a  minute  he  is  at  the  post  office  where  the 
letter  pouch,  square  in  shape  with  four 
padlocked  pockets,  is  awaiting  him.  Dis- 
mounting only  long  enough  for  this  pouch 
to  be  thrown  over  his  saddle,  he  again 
springs  to  his  place  and  is  gone.  A  short 
sprint  and  he  has  reached  the  Missouri 
River  wharf.  A  ferry  boat  under  a  full 


32  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

head  of  steam  is  waiting.  With  scarcely 
checked  speed,  the  horse  thunders  onto 
the  deck  of  the  craft.  A  rumbling  of 
machinery,  the  jangle  of  a  bell,  the  sharp 
toot  of  a  whistle  and  the  boat  has 
swung  clear  and  is  headed  straight  for 
the  opposite  shore.  The  crowd  behind 
breaks  into  tumultuous  applause.  Some 
scream  themselves  hoarse;  others  are 
strangely  silent;  and  some  —  strong  men 
—  are  moved  to  tears. 

The  noise  of  the  cheering  multitude 
grows  faint  as  the  Kansas  shore  draws  near. 
The  engines  are  reversed;  a  swish  of  water, 
and  the  craft  grates  against  the  dock. 
Scarcely  has  the  gang  plank  been  lowered 
than  horse  and  rider  dash  over  it  and  are  off 
at  a  furious  gallop.  Away  on  the  jet  black 
steed  goes  Johnnie  Frey,  the  first  rider, 
with  the  mail  that  must  be  hurled  by  flesh 
and  blood  over  1,966  miles  of  desolate 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     33 

space  —  across  the  plains,  through  North- 
eastern Kansas  and  into  Nebraska,  up  the 
valley  of  the  Platte,  across  the  Great 
Plateau,  into  the  foothills  and  over  the 
summit  of  the  Rockies,  into  the  arid  Great 
Basin,  over  the  Wahsatch  range,  into  the; 
valley  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  through  the 
terrible  alkali  deserts  of  Nevada,  through 
the  parched  Sink  of  the  Carson  River,  over 
the  snowy  Sierras,  and  into  the  Sacra- 
mento Valley  —  the  mail  must  go  without 
delay.  Neither  storms,  fatigue,  darkness, 
rugged  mountains,  burning  deserts,  nor 
savage  Indians  were  to  hinder  this  pouch 
of  letters.  The  mail  must  go;  and  its 
schedule,  incredible  as  it  seemed,  must  be 
made.  It  was  a  sublime  undertaking,  than 
which  few  have  ever  put  the  fibre  of  Amer- 
icans to  a  severer  test. 

The  managers  of  the  Central  Overland, 
California  and  Pike's  Peak  Express  Com- 


34  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

pany  had  laid  their  plans  well.  Horses 
and  riders  for  fresh  relays,  together  with 
station  agents  and  helpers,  were  ready  and 
waiting  at  the  appointed  places,  ten  or  fif- 
teen miles  apart  over  the  entire  course. 
There  was  no  guess-work  or  delay. 

After  crossing  the  Missouri  River,  out 
of  St.  Joseph,  the  official  route*  of  the 
west-bound  Pony  Express  ran  at  first  west 
and  south  through  Kansas  to  Kennekuk; 
then  northwest,  across  the  Kickapoo  Indian 
reservation,  to  Granada,  Log  Chain,  Sen- 
eca, Ash  Point,  Guittards,  Marysville,  and 
Hollenberg.  Here  the  valley  of  the  Little 
Blue  River  was  followed,  still  in  a  north- 
west direction.  The  trail  crossed  into 
Nebraska  near  Rock  Creek  and  pushed  on 
through  Big  Sandy  and  Liberty  Farm,  to 
Thirty-two-mile  Creek.  From  thence  it 

*Root  and  Connelley's  Overland  Stage  to  Cali- 
fornia. 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     35 

passed  over  the  prairie  divide  to  the  Platte 
River,  the  valley  of  which  was  followed 
to  Fort  Kearney.  This  route  had  already 
been  made  famous  by  the  Mormons  when 
they  journeyed  to  Utah  in  1847.  It  had 
also  been  followed  by  many  of  the  Cali- 
fornia gold-seekers  in  1848-49  and  by 
Gen.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  and  his  army 
when  they  marched  west  from  Fort 
Leavenworth  to  suppress  the  "  Mormon 
War"  of  1857-58. 

For  about  three  hundred  miles  out  of 
Fort  Kearney,  the  trail  followed  the  prai- 
ries; for  two  thirds  of  this  distance,  it 
clung  to  the  south  bank  of  the  Platte,  pass- 
ing through  Plum  Creek  and  Midway.* 
At  Cottonwood  Springs  the  junction  of  the 
North  and  South  branches  of  the  Platte 
was  reached.  From  here  the  course  moved 

*  So  called  because  it  was  about  half  way  between 
the  Missouri  River  and  Denver. 


36  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

steadily  westward,  through  Fremont's 
Springs,  O'Fallon's  Bluffs,  Alkali,  Beau- 
vais  Ranch,  and  Diamond  Springs  to 
Julesburg,  on  the  South  fork  of  the  Platte. 
Here  the  stream  was  forded  and  the  rider 
then  followed  the  course  of  Lodge  Pole 
Creek  in  a  northwesterly  direction  to 
Thirty  Mile  Ridge.  Thence  he  journeyed 
to  Mud  Springs,  Court-House  Rock, 
Chimney  Rock,  and  Scott's  Bluffs  to  Fort 
Laramie.  From  this  point  he  passed 
through  the  foot-hills  to  the  base  of  the 
Rockies,  then  over  the  mountains  through 
South  Pass  and  to  Fort  Bridger.  Then  to 
Salt  Lake  City,  Camp  Floyd,  Ruby  Val- 
ley, Mountain  Wells,  across  the  Humboldt 
River  in  Nevada  to  Bisbys',  Carson  City, 
and  to  Placerville,  California;  thence  to 
Folsom  and  Sacramento.  Here  the  mail 
was  taken  by  a  fast  steamer  down  the 
Sacramento  River  to  San  Francisco. 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     37 

A  large  part  of  this  route  traversed  the 
wildest  regions  of  the  Continent.  Along 
the  entire  course  there  were  but  four  mili- 
tary posts  and  they  were  strung  along  at 
intervals  of  from  two  hundred  and  fifty 
to  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  each 
other.  Over  most  of  the  journey  there 
were  only  small  way  stations  to  break  the 
awful  monotony.  Topographically,  the 
trail  covered  nearly  six  hundred  miles  of 
rolling  prairie,  intersected,  here  and  there 
by  streams  fringed  with  timber.  The  na- 
ture of  the  mountainous  regions,  the  des- 
erts, and  alkali  plains  as  avenues  of 
horseback  travel  is  well  understood. 
Throughout  these  areas  the  men  and 
horses  had  to  endure  such  risks  as  rocky 
chasms,  snow  slides,  and  treacherous 
streams,  as  well  as  storms  of  sand  and 
snow.  The  worst  part  of  the  journey  lay 
between  Salt  Lake  City  and  Sacramento, 


38  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

where  for  several  hundred  miles  the  route 
ran  through  a  desert,  much  of  it  a  bed  ol 
alkali  dust  where  no  living  creature  couk 
long  survive.  It  was  not  merely  these  dan- 
gers of  dire  exposure  and  privation  that 
threatened,  for  wherever  the  country  per- 
mitted of  human  life,  Indians  abounded 
From  the  Platte  River  valley  westward, 
the  old  route  sped  over  by  the  Pony  Ex- 
press is  today  substantially  that  of  the 
Union  Pacific  and  Southern  Pacific  Rail- 


roads. 


In  California,  the  region  most  benefitec 
by  the  express,  the  opening  of  the  line  was 
likewise  awaited  with  the  keenest  anticipa- 
tion. Of  course  there  had  been  at  the 
outset  a  few  dissenting  opinions,  the  gist ! 
of  the  opposing  sentiment  being  that  the 
Indians  would  make  the  operation  of  the 
route  impossible.  One  newspaper  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  it  was  "  Simply  inviting  j 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     39 

slaughter  upon  all  the  foolhardy  young 
men  who  had  been  engaged  as  riders". 
But  the  California  spirit  would  not  down. 
A  vast  majority  of  the  people  favored  the 
enterprise  and  clamored  for  it;  and  before 
the  express  had  been  long  in  operation,  all 
classes  were  united  in  the  conviction  that 
they  could  not  do  without  it. 

At  San  Francisco  and  Sacramento,  then 
the  two  most  important  towns  in  the  far 
jWest,   great  preparations  were  made  to 
;  celebrate  the  first  outgoing  and  incoming 
!  mails.    On  April  3rd,  at  the  same  hour  the 
!  express  started  from  St.  Joseph,*  the  east- 
bound    mail    was    placed    on    board    a 
steamer  at  San  Francisco  and  sent  up  the 
river,    accompanied    by    an    enthusiastic 
delegation  of  business  men.    On  the  arrival 
i  of  the  pouch  and  its  escort  at  Sacramento, 

*  Reports  as  to  the  precise  hour  of  starting  do  not 
i  all  agree.     It  was  probably  late  in  the  afternoon  or 
early  in  the  evening,  no  later  than  6 130. 


40  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

the  capital  city,  they  were  greeted  with 
the  blare  of  bands,  the  firing  of  guns,  and 
the  clanging  of  gongs.  Flags  were 
unfurled  and  floral  decorations  lined  the 
streets.  That  night  the  first  rider  for  the 
East,  Harry  Roff,  left  the  city  on  a  white 
broncho.  He  rode  the  first  twenty  miles 
in  fifty-nine  minutes,  changing  mounts 
once.  He  next  took  a  fresh  horse  at  Fol- 
som  and  pushed  on  fifty-five  miles  farther 
to  Placerville.  Here  he  was  relieved  by 
"  Boston,"  who  carried  the  mail  to  Friday 
Station,  crossing  the  Sierras  en  route. 
Next  came  Sam  Hamilton  who  rode 
through  Geneva,  Carson  City,  Dayton, 
and  Reed's  Station  to  Fort  Churchill,  sev- 
enty-five miles  in  all.  This  point,  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  miles  out  of  Sac- 
ramento had  been  reached  in  fifteen  hours 
and  twenty  minutes,  in  spite  of  the  Sierra 
Divide  where  the  snow  drifts  were  thirty 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     41 

feet  deep  and  where  the  Company  had  to 
keep  a  drove  of  pack  mules  moving  in 
order  to  keep  the  passageway  clear.  From 
Fort  Churchill  into  Ruby  Valley  went 
H.  J.  Faust;  from  Ruby  Valley  to  Shell 
Creek  the  courier  was  "Josh"  Perkins; 
then  came  Jim  Gentry  who  carried  the  mail 
to  Deep  Creek,  and  he  was  followed  by 
"  Let "  Huntington  who  pushed  on  to 
Simpson's  Springs.  From  Simpson's  to 
Camp  Floyd  rode  John  Fisher,  and  from 
the  latter  place  Major  Egan  carried  the 
mail  into  Salt  Lake  City,  arriving  April  7, 
at  1 1  .-45  P.  M.*  The  obstacles  to  fast 
travel  had  been  numerous  because  of 
snow  in  the  mountains,  and  stormy  spring 
weather  with  its  attendant  discomfort 
and  bad  going.  Yet  the  schedule  had 
been  maintained,  and  the  last  seventy-five 

*  Authorities  differ  somewhat  as  to  the  personnel 
of  the  first  trip;  also  as  to  the  number  of  letters 
carried. 


42  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

miles  into  Salt  Lake  City  had  been  ridden 
in  five  hours  and  fifteen  minutes. 

At  that  time  Placerville  and  Carson 
City  were  the  terminals  of  a  local  telegraph 
line.  News  had  been  flashed  back  from 
Carson  on  April  4  that  the  rider  had  passed 
that  point  safely.  After  that  came  an 
anxious  wait  until  April  12  when  the 
arrival  of  the  west-bound  express  an- 
nounced that  all  was  well. 

The  first  trip  of  the  Pony  Express  west- 
bound from  St.  Joseph  to  Sacramento  was 
made  in  nine  days  and  twenty-three  hours. 
East-bound,  the  run  was  covered  in  eleven 
days  and  twelve  hours.  The  average  time 
of  these  two  performances  was  barely  half 
that  required  by  the  Butterfield  stage  over 
the  Southern  route.  The  pony  had 
clipped  ten  full  days  from  the  schedule  of 
its  predecessor,  and  shown  that  it  could 
keep  its  schedule  —  which  was  as  follows : 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     43 

From  St.  Joseph  to  Salt  Lake  City  — 
124  hours. 

From  Salt  Lake  City  to  Carson  City 
—  218  hours,  from  starting  point. 

From  Carson  City  to  Sacramento  —  232 
hours,  from  starting  point. 

From  Sacramento  to  San  Francisco  — 
240  hours,  from  starting  point. 

From  the  very  first  trip,  expressions  of 
genuine  appreciation  of  the  new  service 
were  shown  all  along  the  line.  The  first 
express  which  reached  Salt  Lake  City  east- 
bound  on  the  night  of  April  7,  led  the 
Deseret  News,  the  leading  paper  of  that 
town  to  say  that:  "  Although  a  telegraph 
is  very  desirable,  we  feel  well-satisfied 
with  this  achievement  for  the  present ". 
Two  days  later,  the  first  west-bound  ex- 
press bound  from  St.  Joseph  reached  the 
Mormon  capital.  Oddly  enough  this 
rider  carried  news  of  an  act  to  amend  a 


44  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

bill  just  proposed  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  providing  that  Utah  be  organized 
into  Nevada  Territory  under  the  name 
and  leadership  of  the  latter.*  Many  of 
the  Mormons,  like  numerous  persons  in 
California,  had  at  first  believed  the  Pony 
Express  an  impossibility,  but  now  that  it 
had  been  demonstrated  wholly  feasible, 
they  were  delighted  with  its  success, 
whether  it  brought  them  good  news  or  bad ; 
for  it  had  brought  Utah  within  six  days  of 
the  Missouri  River  and  within  seven  days 
of  Washington  City.  Prior  to  this,  under 
the  old  stage  coach  regime,  the  people  of 
that  territory  had  been  accustomed  to 
receive  their  news  of  the  world  from  six 
weeks  to  three  months  old. 

*On  account  of  the  Mormon  outbreak  and  the 
troubles  of  1857-58,  there  was  at  this  time  much  ill- 
feeling  in  Congress  against  Utah.  Matters  were 
finally  smoothed  out  and  the  bill  in  question  was  of 
course  dropped.  Utah  was  loyal  to  the  Union 
throughout  the  Civil  War. 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     45 

Probably  no  greater  demonstrations 
were  ever  held  in  California  cities  than 
when  the  first  incoming  express  arrived. 
Its  schedule  having  been  announced  in  the 
daily  papers  a  week  ahead,  the  people 
were  ready  with  their  welcome.  At  Sacra- 
mento, as  when  the  pony  mail  had  first 
come  up  from  San  Francisco,  practically 
the  whole  town  turned  out.  Stores  were 
closed  and  business  everywhere  suspended. 
State  officials  and  other  citizens  of  promi- 
nence addressed  great  crowds  in  com- 
memoration of  the  wonderful  achieve- 
ment. Patriotic  airs  were  played  and  sung 
and  no  attempt  was  made  to  check  the 
merry-making  of  the  populace.  After  a 
hurried  stop  to  deliver  local  mail,  the 
pouch  was  rushed  aboard  the  fast  sailing 
steamer  Antelope,  and  the  trip  down  the 
stream  begun.  Although  San  Francisco 
was  not  reached  until  the  dead  of  night, 


46  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

the  arrival  of  the  express  mail  was  the  sig- 
nal for  a  hilarious  reception.  Whistles 
were  blown,  bells  jangled,  and  the  Cali- 
fornia Band  turned  out.  The  city  fire  de- 
partment, suddenly  aroused  by  the  uproar, 
rushed  into  the  street,  expecting  to  find  a 
conflagration,  but  on  recalling  the  true 
state  of  affairs,  the  firemen  joined  in  with 
spirit.  The  express  courier  was  then 
formally  escorted  by  a  huge  procession 
from  the  steamship  dock  to  the  office  of 
the  Alt  a  tfelegraph^  the  official  Western 
terminal,  and  the  momentous  trip  had 
ended. 

The  first  Pony  Express  from  St.  Joseph 
brought  a  message  of  congratulation  from 
President  Buchanan  to  Governor  Downey 
of  California,  which  was  first  telegraphed 
to  the  Missouri  River  town.  It  als 
brought  one  or  two  official  government 
communications,  some  New  York,  Chi- 


y 

: 

• 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     47 

cago,  and  St.  Louis  newspapers,  a  few 
bank  drafts,  and  some  business  letters  ad- 
dressed to  banks  and  commercial  houses  in 
San  Francisco  —  about  eighty-five  pieces 
of  mail  in  all.*  And  it  had  brought  news 
from  th^e  East  only  nine  days  on  the  road. 
At  the  outset,  the  Express  reduced  the 
time  for  letters  from  New  York  to  the 
Coast  from  twenty-three  days  to  about  ten  v 
days.  Before  the  line  had  been  placed  in 
operation,  a  telegraph  wire,  allusion  to 
which  has  been  made,  had  been  strung 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  Eastward 
from  San  Francisco  through  Sacramento  to 
Carson  City,  Nevada.  Important  official 
business  from  Washington  was  therefore 
wired  to  St.  Joseph,  then  forwarded  by 
pony  rider  to  Carson  City  where  it  was 
again  telegraphed  to  Sacramento  or  San 

*Eastbound  the  first  rider  carried  about  seventy 
letters. 


48  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Francisco  as  the  case  required,  thus  saving 
twelve  or  fifteen  hours  in  transmission  on 
the  last  lap  of  the  journey.  The  usual 
schedule  for  getting  dispatches  from  the 
Missouri  River  to  the  Coast  was  eight 
days,  and  for  letters,  ten  days. 

After  the  triumphant  first  trip,  when  it 
was  fully  evident  that  the  Pony  Express* 
was  a  really  established  enterprise,  the  St. 

*  The  idea  of  a  Pony  Express  was  not  a  new  one 
in  1859.  Marco  Polo  relates  that  Genghis  Khan, 
ruler  of  Chinese  Tartary  had  such  a  courier  service 
about  one  thousand  years  ago.  This  ambitious  mon- 
arch, it  is  said,  had  relay  stations  twenty-five  miles 
apart,  and  his  riders  sometimes  covered  three  hun- 
dred miles  in  twenty-four  hours. 

About  a  hundred  years  back,  such  a  system  was 
in  vogue  in  various  countries  of  Europe. 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  before  the  tele- 
graph was  invented,  a  New  York  newspaper  man 
named  David  Hale  used  a  Pony  Express  system  to 
collect  state  news.  A  little  later,  in  1830,  a  rival 
publisher,  Richard  Haughton,  political  editor  of  the 
New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  borrowed  the  same 
idea.  He  afterward  founded  the  Boston  Atlas,  and 
by  making  relays  of  fast  horses  and  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  services  offered  by  a  few  short  lines  of 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     49 

Joseph  Free  Democrat  broke  into  the  fol- 
lowing panegyric: 

Take  down  your  map  and  trace  the  foot- 
prints of  our  quadrupedantic  animal:  From 
St.  Joseph  on  the  Missouri  to  San  Francisco, 
on  the  Golden  Horn  —  two  thousand  miles  — 
more  than  half  the  distance  across  our  bound- 
less continent ;  through  Kansas,  through  Neb- 
raska, by  Fort  Kearney,  along  the  Platte,  by 
Fort  Laramie,  past  the  Buttes,  over  the  Rocky 

railroad  then  operating  in  Massachusetts,  he  was 
enabled  to  print  election  returns  by.  nine  o'clock  on 
the  morning  after  election. 

This  idea  was  improved  by  James  W.  Webb, 
Editor  of  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  a 
big  daily  of  that  time.  In  1832,  Webb  organized  an 
'express  rider  line  between  New  York  and  Washing- 
,ton.  This  undertaking  gave  his  paper  much  valuable 
prestige. 

In  1833,  Hale  and  Hallock  of  the  Journal  of  Com- 
merce started  a  rival  line  that  enabled  them  to  pub- 
lish Washington  news  within  forty-eight  hours,  thus 
giving  their  paper  a  big  "  scoop  "  over  all  competitors. 
Papers  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  miles  south-east  of  Washington  actually  got  the 
news  from  the  capitol  out  of  the  New  York  Journal 
of  Commerce  received  by  the  ocean  route,  sooner 
than  news  printed  in  Washington  could  be 'sent  to 
;  Norfolk  by  boat  directly  down  the  Potomac  River. 


50  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Mountains,  through  the  narrow  passes  and 
along  the  steep  defiles,  Utah,  Fort  Bridger, 
Salt  Lake  City,  he  witches  Brigham  with  his 
swift  ponyship  —  through  the  valleys,  along 
the  grassy  slopes,  into  the  snow,  into  sand, 
faster  than  Thor's  Thialfi,  away  they  go,  rider 
and  horse  —  did  you  see  them  ?  They  are  in 
California,  leaping  over  its  golden  sands,  tread- 
ing its  busy  streets.  The  courser  has  unrolled 
to  us  the  great  American  panorama,  allowed  us 
to  glance  at  the  homes  of  one  million  people, 
and  has  put  a  girdle  around  the  earth  in  forty 
minutes.  Verily  the  riding  is  like  the  riding 
of  Jehu,  the  son  of  Nimshi  for  he  rideth  furi- 

The  California  Pony  Express  of  historic  fame 
was  imitated  on  a  small  scale  in  1861  by  the  Rocky 
Mountain  News  of  Denver,  ftien,  as  now,  one  of  the 
great  newspapers  of  the  West.  At  that  time,  this 
enterprising  daily  owned  and  published  a  paper  called 
the  Miner's  Record  at  Tarryall,  a  mining  community 
some  distance  out  of  Denver.  The  News  also  had 
a  branch  office  at  Central  City,  forty-five  miles  up  in 
the  mountains.  As  soon  as  information  from  the 
War  arrived  over  the  California  Pony  Express  and 
by  stage  out  of  old  Julesburg  from  the  Missouri 
River — Denver  was  not  on  the  Pony  Express  route — 
it  was  hurried  to  these  outlying  points  by  fast  horse- 
men. Thanks  to  this  enterprise,  the  miners  in  the 
heart  of  the  Rockies  £ould  get  their  War  news  only 
four  days  late. — Root  and  Connelley. 


FIRST  TRIP  AND  TRIUMPH     51 

ously.  Take  out  your  watch.  We  are  eight 
days  from  New  York,  eighteen  from  London. 
The  race  is  to  the  swift. 

The  Pony  Express  had  been  tried  at  the 
tribunal  of  popular  opinion  and  given  a 
hearty  endorsement.  It  had  yet  to  win  the 
approval  of  shrewd  statesmanship. 


CHAPTER  IV 

OPERATION,  EQUIPMENT,  AND  BUSINESS 

ON  ENTERING  the  service  of  the 
Central   Overland   California   anc 
Pike's  Peak  Express  Company,  employees 
of  the  Pony  Express  were  compelled  to  take 
an  oath  of  fidelity  which  ran  as  follows : 

"  I, ,  do  hereby  swear,  before 

the  Great  and  Living  God,  that  during  my  en- 
gagement,   and   while    I   am   an   employe   o 
Russell,  Majors  &  Waddell,  I  will,  under  no 
circumstances,  use  profane  language;  that 
will  drink  no  intoxicating  liquors;  that  I  wil 
not  quarrel  or  fight  with  any  other  employe  o 
the  firm,  and  that  in  every  respect  I  will  con 
duct  myself  honestly,  be  faithful  to  my  duties 
and  so  direct  all  my  acts  as  to  win  the  con- 
fidence of  my  employers.    So  help  me  God.5'  * 

*  This  was  the  same  pledge  which  the  original  firm 
had  required  of  its  men.    Both  Russell,  Majors,  and 

52 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     53 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all,  nor  any 
considerable  number  of  the  Pony  Express 
!men  were  saintly,  nor  that  they  all  took 
their  pledge  too  seriously.  Judged  by 
present-day  standards,  most  of  these  fel- 
lows were  rough  and  unconventional; 
some  of  them  were  bad.  Yet  one  thing  is 
certain:  in  loyalty  and  blind  devotion  to  j 
duty,  no  group  of  employees  will  ever  sur-  ] 
pass  the  men  who  conducted  the  Pony  Ex-< 
|  press.  During  the  sixteen  months  of  its 
|  existence,  the  riders  of  this  wonderful 
1  enterprise,  nobly  assisted  by  the  faithful 
station-keepers,  travelled  six  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  miles,  contending  against 

Waddell,  and  the  C.  O.  C.  and  P.  P.  Exp.  Co.,  which 
I  they  incorporated,  adhered  to  a  rigid  observance  of 
;the  Sabbath.  They  insisted  on  their  men  doing  as 
little  work  as  possible  on  that  day,  and  had  them 
desist  from  work  whenever  possible.  And  they  stuck 
faithfully  to  these  policies.  Probably  no  concern  ever 
I  won  a  higher  and  more  deserved  reputation  for  in- 
itegrity  in  the  fulfilment  of  its  contracts  and  for  bus- 
liness  reliability  than  Russell,  Majors,  and  Waddell. 


54  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

the  most  desperate  odds  that  a  lonely  wil- 
derness and  savage  nature  could  offer, 
with  the  loss  of  only  a  single  mail.  And 
that  mail  happened  to  be  of  relatively 
small  importance.  Only  one  rider  was 
ever  killed  outright  while  on  duty.  A  few 
were  mortally  wounded,  and  occasionally 
their  horses  were  disabled.  Yet  with  the 
one  exception,  they  stuck  grimly  to  the 
saddle  or  trudged  manfully  ahead  without 
a  horse  until  the  next  station  was  reached. 
With  these  men,  keeping  the  schedule 
came  to  be  a  sort  of  religion,  a  perform- 
ance that  must  be  accomplished  —  even 
though  it  forced  them  to  play  a  desperate 
game  the  stakes  of  which  were  life  and 
death.  Many  station  men  and  numbers 
of  riders  while  off  duty  were  murdered  by 
Indians.  They  were  martyrs  to  the  cause 
of  patriotism  and  a  newer  and  better  civil- 
ization. Yet  they  were  hirelings,  working 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     55 

for  good  wages  and  performing  their  du- 
ties in  a  simple,  matter-of-fact  way.  Their 
heroism  was  never  a  self-conscious  trait. 

The  riders  were  young  men,  seldom 
exceeding  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
pounds  in  weight.  Youthfulness,  nerve, 
a  wide  experience  on  the  frontier  and  gen- 
eral adaptability  were  the  chief  requisites 
for  the  Pony  Express  business.  Some  of 
the  greatest  frontiersmen  of  the  latter 
'sixties  and  the  'seventies  were  trained  in 
this  service,  either  as  pony  riders  or  station 
men.  The  latter  had  even  a  more  dan- 
igerous  task,  since  in  their  isolated  shacks 
ithey  were  often  completely  at  the  mercy 
of  Indians. 

That  only  one  rider  was  ever  taken  by 
the  savages  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
pony  men  rode  magnificent  horses  which 
|  invariably  outclassed  the  Indian  ponies  in 
speed  and  endurance.  The  lone  man  cap- 


56  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

tured  while  on  duty  was  completely  sur- 
rounded by  a  large  number  of  savages  on 
the  Platte  River  in  Nebraska.  He  was 
shot  dead  and  though  his  body  was  not 
found  for  several  days,  his  pony,  bridled 
and  saddled,  escaped  safely  with  the  mail 
which  was  duly  forwarded  to  its  destina- 
tion. That  far  more  riders  were  killed  or 
injured  while  off  duty  than  when  in  the 
saddle  was  due  solely  to  the  wise  precau- 
tion of  the  Company  in  selecting  such 
high-grade  riding  stock.  And  it  took  the 
best  of  horseflesh  to  make  the  schedule. 

The  riders  dressed  as  they  saw  fit.  The 
average  costume  consisted  of  a  buckskin 
shirt,  ordinary  trousers  tucked  into  high 
leather  boots,  and  a  slouch  hat  or  cap. 
They  always  went  armed.  At  first  a  Spen- 
cer carbine  was  carried  strapped  to  the 
rider's  back,  besides  a  sheath  knife  at  his 
side.  In  the  saddle  holsters  he  carried  a 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     57 

pair  of  Colt's  revolvers.  After  a  time  the 
carbines  were  left  off  and  only  side  arms 
taken  along.  The  carrying  of  larger  guns 
meant  extra  weight,  and  it  was  made  a 
rule  of  the  Company  that  a  rider  should 
never  fight  unless  compelled  to  do  so.  He 
was  to  depend  wholly  upon  speed  for 
safety.  The  record  of  the  service  fully 
'  justified  this  policy. 

While  the  horses  were  of  the  highest 
grade,  they  were  of  mixed  breed  and  were 
purchased  over  a  wide  range  of  territory. 
Good  results  were  obtained  from  blooded 
animals  from  the  Missouri  Valley,  but 
considerable  preference  was  shown  for  the 
western-bred  mustangs.  These  animals 
were  about  fourteen  hands  high  and  aver- 
aged less  than  nine  hundred  pounds  in 
weight.  A  former  blacksmith  for  the 
Company  who  was  at  one  time  located  at 
Seneca,  Kansas,  recalls  that  one  of  these 


58  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

native  ponies  often  had  to  be  thrown  and 
staked  down  with  a  rope  tied  to  each  foot 
before  it  could  be  shod.  Then,  before  the 
smith  could  pare  the  hoofs  and  nail  on  the 
shoes,  it  was  necessary  for  one  man  to  sit 
astride  the  animal's  head,  and  another  on 
its  body,  while  the  beast  continued  to 
struggle  and  squeal.  To  shoe  one  of  these 
animals  often  required  a  half  day  of 
strenuous  work. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  horse  as  well 
as  rider  traveled  very  light.  The  com- 
bined weight  of  the  saddle,  bridle  and  sad- 
dle bags  did  not  exceed  thirteen  pounds. 
The  saddle-bag  used  by  the  pony  rider  for 
carrying  mail  was  called  a  mochila;  it  had 
openings  in  the  center  so  it  would  fit 
snugly  over  the  horn  and  tree  of  the  saddle 
and  yet  be  removable  without  delay.  The 
mochila  had  four  pockets  called  cantinas 
in  each  of  its  corners  —  one  in  front  and 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     59 

one  behind  each  of  the  rider's  legs.  These 
cantinas  held  the  mail.  All  were  kept 
carefully  locked  and  three  were  opened 
en  route  only  at  military  posts  —  Forts 
Kearney,  Laramie,  Bridger,  Churchill  — 
and  at  Salt  Lake  City.  The  fourth  pocket 
was  for  the  local  or  way  mail-stations. 
Each  local  station-keeper  had  a  key  and 
could  open  it  when  necessary.  It  held  a 
time-card  on  which  a  record  of  the  arrival 
and  departure  at  the  various  stations 
where  it  was  opened,  was  kept.  Only  one 
mocliila  was  used  on  a  trip;  it  was  trans- 
ferred by  the  rider  from  one  horse  to  an- 
other until  the  destination  was  reached. 

Letters  were  wrapped  in  oil  silk  to  pro- 
tect them  from  moisture,  either  from 
stormy  weather,  fording  streams,  or  per- 
spiring animals.  While  a  mail  of  twenty 
pounds  might  be  carried,  the  average 
weight  did  not  exceed  fifteen  pounds.  The 


60  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

postal  charges  were  at  first,  five  dollars 
for  each  half -ounce  letter,  but  this  rate 
was  afterward  reduced  by  the  Post  Office 
Department  to  one  dollar  for  each  half 
ounce.  At  this  figure  it  remained  as  long 
as  the  line  was  in  business.  In  addition  to 
this  rate,  a  regulation  government  envel- 
ope costing  ten  cents,  had  to  be  purchased. 
Patrons  generally  made  use  of  a  specially 
light  tissue  paper  for  their  correspondence. 
The  large  newspapers  of  New  York,  Bos- 
/  ton,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  San  Francisco 
/  were  among  the  best  customers  of  the  serv- 
I  ice.  Some  of  the  Eastern  dailies  even  kept 
special  correspondents  at  St.  Joseph  to 
receive  and  telegraph  to  the  home  office 
news  from  the  West  as  soon  as  it  arrived. 
On  account  of  the  enormous  postage  rates 
these  newspapers  would  print  special  edi- 
tions of  Civil  War  news  on  the  thinnest 
of  paper  to  avoid  all  possible  mailing  bulk. 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     61 

Mr.  Frank  A.  Root  of  Topeka,  Kansas, 
who  was  Assistant  Postmaster  and  Chief 
Clerk  in  the  post  office  at  Atchison  during 
the  last  two  months  of  the  line's  existence, 
in  1861,  says  that  during  that  period  the 
Express,  which  was  running  semi-weekly, 
brought  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  let- 
ters each  trip  from  California.*  Many  of 
these  communications  were  from  govern- 
ment and  state  officials  in  California  and 
Oregon,  and  addressed  to  the  Federal  au- 
thorities at  Washington,  particularly  to 
Senators  and  Representatives  from  these 
states  and  to  authorities  of  the  War  De- 
partment. A  few  were  addressed  to  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 

*  Exact  figures  are  not  obtainable  for  the  west 
bound  mail  but  it  was  probably  not  so  heavy. 

At  this  time — Sept.,  1861 — the  telegraph  had  been 
extended  from  the  Missouri  to  Fort  Kearney,  Ne- 
braska, and  letter  pouches  from  the  Pony  Express 
were  sent  by  overland  stage  from  Kearney  to  Atchi- 
son. Messages  of  grave  concern  were  wired  as  soon 
as  this  station  was  reached. 


62  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

States.  A  large  number  of  these  letters 
were  from  business  and  professional  men 
in  Portland,  San  Francisco,  Oakland,  and 
Sacramento,  and  mailed  to  firms  in  the 
large  cities  of  the  East  and  Middle  West. 
Not  to  mention  the  rendering  of  invalu- 
able help  to  the  Government  in  retaining 
California  at  the  beginning  of  the  War, 
the  Pony  Express  was  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance to  the  commercial  interests  of 
the  West. 

The  line  was  frequently  used  by  the 
British  Government  in  forwarding  its 
Asiatic  correspondence  to  London.  In 
1860,  a  report  of  the  activities  of  the  Eng- 
lish fleet  off  the  coast  of  China  was  sent 
through  from  San  Francisco  eastward 
over  this  route.  For  the  transmission  of 
these  dispatches  that  Government  paid 
one  hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars  Pony 
Express  charges. 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     63 

Nor  did  the  commercial  houses  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  cities  appear  to  mind  a  little 
expense  in  forwarding  their  business  let- 
ters. Mr.  Root  says  there  would  often  be 
twenty-five  one  dollar  "Pony"  stamps 
and  the  same  number  of  Government 
stamps  —  a  total  in  postage  of  twenty- 
seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents  —  on  a  single 
envelope.  Not  much  frivolity  passed 
through  these  mails. 

>l  Pony  Express  riders  received  an  average 
salary  of  from  one  hundred  dollars  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  a  month. 
A  few  whose  rides  were  particularly  dan- 
gerous or  who  had  braved  unusual  dangers 
received  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
Station  men  and  their  assistants  were  paid 
from  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  monthly. 

Of  the  eighty  riders  usually  in  the  serv- 
ice, half  were  always  riding  in  either  direc- 
tion, East  and  West.  The  average 


64  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

"  run "  was  seventy-five  miles,  the  men 
going  and  coming  over  their  respective 
divisions  on  each  succeeding  day.  Yet 
there  were  many  exceptions  to  this  rule,  as 
will  be  shown  later.  At  the  outset,  al- 
though facilities  for  shorter  relays  had 
been  provided,  it  was  planned  to  run  each 
horse  twenty-five  miles  with  an  average  of 
three  horses  to  the  rider;  but  it  was  soon 
found  that  a  horse  could  rarely  continue  at 
a  maximum  speed  for  so  great  a  distance. 
Consequently,  it  soon  became  the  practice 
to  change  mounts  every  ten  or  twelve  miles 
or  as  nearly  that  as  possible.  The  exact 
distance  was  governed  largely  by  the  na- 
ture of  the  country.  While  this  shorten- 
ing of  the  relay  necessitated  transferring 
the  mochila  many  more  times  on  each  trip, 
it  greatly  facilitated  the  schedule;  for  it 
was  at  once  seen  that  the  average  horse  or 
pony  in  the  Express  service  could  be 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     65 

crowded  to  the  limit  of  its  speed  over  the 
reduced  distance. 

One  of  the  station-keeper's  most  impor- 
tant duties  was  to  have  a  fresh  horse  sad- 
dled and  bridled  a  half  hour  before  the 
Express  was  due.  Only  two  minutes  time 
was  allowed  for  changing  mounts.  The 
rider's  approach  was  watched  for  with 
keen  anxiety.  By  daylight  he  could  gen- 
erally be  seen  in  a  cloud  of  dust,  if  in  the 
desert  or  prairie  regions.  If  in  the  moun- 
tains, the  clear  air  made  it  possible  for  the 
station  men  to  detect  his  approach  a  long 
way  off,  provided  there  were  no  obstruc- 
tions to  hide  the  view.  At  night  the  rider 
would  make  his  presence  known  by  a  few 
lusty  whoops.  Dashing  up  to  the  station, 
no  time  was  wasted.  The  courier  would 
already  have  loosed  his  mochila,  which  he 
tossed  ahead  for  the  keeper  to  adjust  on 
the  fresh  horse,  before  dismounting.  A 


66  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

sudden  reining  up  of  his  foam-covered 
steed,  and  "All's  well  along  the  road, 
Hank!  "  to  the  station  boss,  and  he  was 
again  mounted  and  gone,  usually  fifteen 
seconds  after  his  arrival.  Nor  was  there 
any  longer  delay  when  a  fresh  rider  took 
up  the  "  run." 

Situated  at  intervals  of  about  two  hun- 
dred miles  were  division  points  *  in  charge 
of  locally  important  agents  or  superinten- 
dents. Here  were  kept  extra  men,  animals, 
and  supplies  as  a  precaution  against  the 
raids  of  Indians,  desperadoes,  or  any 
emergency  likely  to  arise.  Division  agents 
had  considerable  authority;  their  pay  was 
as  good  as  that  received  by  the  best  riders. 
They  were  men  of  a  heroic  and  even  in 
some  instances,  desperate  character,  in 
spite  of  their  oath  of  service.  In  certain 

*  These  were  executive  divisions  and  not  to  be 
confused  with  the  riders'  divisions.  The  latter  were 
merely  the  stations  separating  each  man's  "run." 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     67 

localities  much  infested  with  horse  thiev- 
ery and  violence  it  was  necessary  to  have 
in  charge  men  of  the  fight-the-devil-with- 
fire  type  in  order  to  keep  the  business  in 
operation.  Noted  among  this  class  of 
Division  agents,  with  headquarters  at  the 
Platte  Crossing  near  Fort  Kearney,  was 
Jack  Slade,*  who,  though  a  good  servant 
of  the  Company,  turned  out  to  be  one  of 
the  worst  "  bad  "  men  in  the  history  of  the 
West.  He  had  a  record  of  twenty-six 
"  killings  "  to  his  credit,  but  he  kept  his 
Division  thoroughly  purged  of  horse 
thieves  and  savage  marauders,  for  he  knew 
how  to  "  get "  his  man  whenever  there  was 
trouble. 

The  schedule  was  at  first  fixed  at  ten 
days  for  eight  months  of  the  year  and 

*  Slade  was  afterward  hanged  by  vigilantes  in  Vif- 
ginia  City,  Montana.  The  authentic  story  of  his  life 
surpasses  in  romance  and  tragedy  most  of  the  pirate 
tales  of  fiction. 


68  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

twelve  days  during  the  winter  season,  but 
this  was  soon  lowered  to  eight  and  ten 
days  respectively.  An  average  speed  of 
ten  miles  an  hour  including  stops  had  to 
be  maintained  on  the  summer  schedule.  In 
the  winter  the  run  was  sustained  at  eight 
miles  an  hour;  deep  snows  made  the  latter 
performance  the  more  difficult  of  the  two. 
The  best  record  made  by  the  Pony  Ex- 
press was  in  getting  President  Lincoln's 
inaugural  speech  across  the  continent  in 
March,  1861.  This  address,  outlining  as 
it  did  the  attitude  of  the  new  Chief  Execu- 
tive toward  the  pending  conflict,  was  an- 
ticipated with  the  deepest  anxiety  by  the 
people  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Evidently 
inspired  by  the  urgency  of  the  situation, 
the  Company  determined  to  surpass  all 
performances.  Horses  were  led  out,  in 
many  cases,  two  or  three  miles  from  the 
stations,  in  order  to  meet  the  incoming  rid- 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     69 

ers  and  to  secure  the  supreme  limit  of  speed 
and  endurance  on  this  momentous  trip. 
The  document  was  carried  through  from 
St.  Joseph  to  Sacramento — 1966  miles 
! —  in  just  seven  days  and  seventeen  hours, 
Ian  average  speed  of  ten  and  six-tenths 
piles  an  hour.  And  this  by  flesh  and 
jblood,  pounding  the  dirt  over  the  plains, 
mountains,  and  deserts!  The  best  indi- 
idual  performance  on  this  great  run  was 
y  "Pony  Bob"  Haslam  who  galloped 
:he  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from 
Smith's  Creek  to  Fort  Churchill  in  eight 
lours  and  ten  minutes,  an  average  of  four- 
teen and  seven-tenths  miles  per  hour.  On 
this  record-breaking  trip  the  message  was 
carried  the  six  hundred  and  seventy-five 
miles  between  St.  Joseph  and  Denver  *  in 
sixty-nine  hours;  the  last  ten  miles  of  this 

*  The  dispatch  was  taken  from  the  main  line  to 
the  Colorado  capital  by  special  service.  Denver,  it 
will  be  remembered,  was  not  on  the  regular  "  Pony 


70  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

leg  of  the  journey  being  ridden  in  thirty- 
one  minutes.  Today,  but  few  overland 
express  trains,  hauled  by  giant  locomotives 
over  heavy  steel  rails  on  a  rock-ballasted 
roadbed  average  more  than  thirty  miles 
per  hour  between  the  Missouri  and  the  Pa- 
cific Coast. 

The  news  of  the  election  of  Lincoln  in 
November  1860,  and  President  Buch- 
anan's last  message  a  month  later  were 
carried  through  in  eight  days. 

Late  in  the  winter  and  early  in  the 
spring  of  1861,  just  prior  to  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  many  good  records  were 
made  with  urgent  Government  dispatches. 
News  of  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter  was 
taken  through  in  eight  days  and  fourteen- 
hours.  From  then  on,  while  the  Pony  Ex- 
press service  continued,  the  business  men 

route,"  which  ran  north   of  that  city.     There   was 
then  no  telegraph  in  operation  west  of  the  Missouri ; 
River  in  Kansas  or  Nebraska. 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     71 

and  public  officials  of  California  began 
giving  prize  money  to  the  Company,  to  be 
awarded  those  riders  who  made  the  best 
ime  carrying  war  news.    On  one  occasion 
they  raised  a  purse  of  three  hundred  dol- 
lars for  the  star  rider  when  a  pouch  con- 
aining  a  number  of  Chicago  papers  full 
of  information  from  the  South  arrived  at 
Sacramento  a  day  ahead  of  schedule. 

That  these  splendid  achievements  could 
never  have  been  attained  without  a  won- 
jderful  degree  of  enthusiasm  and  loyalty 
on  the  part  of  the  men,  scarcely  needs  .as- 
serting. The  pony  riders  were  highly  re- 
spected by  the  stage  and  freight  employees 
—  in  fact  by  all  respectable  men  through- 
lout  the  West.  Nor  were  they  honored 
imerely  for  what  they  did;  they  were  the 
(sort  of  men  who  command  respect.  To 
'assist  a  rider  in  any  way  was  deemed  a 
high  honor;  to  do  aught  to  retard  him  was 


72  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

the  limit  of  wrong-doing,  a  woeful  offense 
On  the  first  trip  west-bound,  the  rider  be- 
tween Folsom  and  Sacramento  was 
thrown,  receiving  a  broken  leg.  Shortly 
after  the  accident,  a  Wells  Fargo  stage 
happened  along,  and  a  special  agent  of 
that  Company,  who  chanced  to  be  a  pas- 
senger, seeing  the  predicament,  volun- 
teered to  finish  the  run.  This  he  did  suc- 
cessfully, reaching  Sacramento  only  ninety 
minutes  late.  Such  instances  are  typical 
of  the  manly  cooperation  that  made  the 
Pony  Express  the  true  success  that  it  was, 
Mark  Twain,  who  made  a  trip  across 
the  continent  in  1860  has  left  this  glowing 
account  *  of  a  pony  and  rider  that  he  saw 
while  traveling  overland  in  a  stage  coach: 

We  had  a  consuming  desire  from  the  begin- 
ning, to  see  a  pony  rider;  but  somehow  or 
other  all  that  passed  us,  and  all  that  met  us 
managed  to  streak  by  in  the  night  and  so  we 

*  Roughing  It. 


"A  whiz  and  a  hail,  and  the  swift  phantom 
of  the  desert  was  gone  before  we  could  get  our 
heads  out  of  the  windows." 

-"Roughing  It." 


OPERATION  AND  BUSINESS     73 

heard  only  a  whiz  and  a  hail,  and  the  swift 
phantom  of  the  desert  was  gone  before  we 
could  get  our  heads  out  of  the  windows.  But 
now  we  were  expecting  one  along  every  mo- 
ment, and  would  see  him  in  broad  daylight. 
Presently  the  driver  exclaims: 

"  Here  he  comes !  " 

Every  neck  is  stretched  further  and  every 
eye  strained  wider  away  across  the  endless 
dead  level  of  the  prairie,  a  black  speck  appears 
against  the  sky,  and  it  is  plain  that  it  moves. 
Well  I  should  think  so!  In  a  second  it  be- 
comes a  horse  and  rider,  rising  and  falling,  ris- 
ing and  falling  —  sweeping  toward  us  nearer 
and  nearer  growing  more  and  more  distinct, 
more  and  more  sharply  defined  —  nearer  and 
still  nearer,  and  the  flutter  of  hoofs  comes 
faintly  to  the  ear  —  another  instant  a  whoop 
and  a  hurrah  from  our  upper  deck,  a  wave  of 
the  rider's  hands  but  no  reply  and  man  and 
horse  burst  past  our  excited  faces  and  go  wing- 
ing away  like  the  belated  fragment  of  a  storm ! 

So  sudden  is  it  all,  and  so  like  a  flash  of 
unreal  fancy,  that  but  for  a  flake  of  white  foam 
left  quivering  and  perishing  on  a  mail  sack 
after  the  vision  had  flashed  by  and  disappeared, 
we  might  have  doubted  whether  we  had  seen 
any  actual  horse  and  man  at  all,  maybe. 


CHAPTER  V 

CALIFORNIA  AND  THE   SECESSION    MENACE 

WHEN  the  Southern  states  with- 
drew, a  conspiracy  was  on  foot  to 
force  California  out  of  the  Union,  and  or- 
ganize a  new  Republic  of  the  Pacific  with 
the  Sierra  Madre  and  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains for  its  Eastern  boundary.  This  pro- 
posed commonwealth,  when  once  erected, 
and  when  it  had  subjugated  all  Union 
men  in  the  West  who  dared  oppose  it, 
would  eventually  unite  with  the  Confed- 
eracy; and  in  event  of  the  latter's  success 
—  which  at  the  opening  of  the  war  to 
many  seemed  certain  —  the  territory  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America  would 
embrace  the  entire  Southwest,  and  stretch 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Aside 
74» 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       75 

from  its  general  plans,  the  exact  details  of 
this  plot  are  of  course  impossible  to  secure. 
But  that  the  conspiracy  existed  has  never 
been  disproved. 

That  the  rebel  sympathizers  in  Cali- 
fornia were  plotting,  as  soon  as  the  War 
began,  to  take  the  Presidio  at  the  entrance 
to  the  Golden  Gate,  together  with  the  forts 
on  Alcatraz  Island,  the  Custom  House,  the 
Mint,  the  Post  Office,  and  all  United 
States  property,  and  then  having  made  the 
formation  of  their  Republic  certain,  invade 
the  Mexican  State  of  Sonora  and  annex  it 
to  the  new  commonwealth,  has  never  been 
gainsaid.  That  these  conspiracies  existed 
and  were  held  in  grave  seriousness  is  re- 
vealed by  the  official  correspondence  of 
that  time.  That  they  had  been  foment- 
ing for  many  months  is  apparently  re- 
vealed by  this  additional  fact:  during 
Buchanan's  administration,  John  B. 


76  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Floyd,  a  southern  man  who  gave  up  his 
position  to  fight  for  the  Confederacy,  was 
Secretary  of  War.  When  the  Rebellion 
started,  it  was  found  *  that  Floyd,  while 
in  office,  had  removed  135,430  firearms, 
together  with  much  ammunition  and 
heavy  ordnance,  from  the  big  Govern- 
ment arsenal  at  Springfield,  Massachu- 
setts, and  distributed  them  at  various 
points  in  the  South  and  Southwest.  Of 
this  number,  fifty  thousand  f  were  sent 
to  California  where  twenty-five  thousand 
muskets  had  already  been  stored.  And  all 
this  was  done  underhandedly,  without  the 
knowledge  of  Congress. 

California  was  unfortunate  in  having 
as  a  representative  in  the  United  States 
Senate  at  this  time,  William  Gwin,  also 
a  man  of  southern  birth  who  had  cast  his 

*  Bancroft, 
f  Ibid. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       77 

fortunes  in  the  Golden  State  at  the  outset, 
when  the  gold  boom  was  on.  Until  seces- 
sion was  imminent,  Gwin  served  his 
adopted  state  well  enough.  His  encour- 
agement of  the  Pony  Express  enterprise 
has  already  been  pointed  out.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  he  were  statesman  enough  to  have 
foreseen  the  significant  part  this  organiza- 
tion was  to  play  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
War.  Otherwise  his  efforts  in  its  behalf 
must  have  been  lacking  —  though  the  ca- 
reers of  political  adventurers  like  Gwin 
are  full  of  strange  inconsistencies.* 

Speaking  in  the  Senate,  on  December 
12,  1859,  Gwin  declared,  that  he  believed 

*  After  the  War  had  started,  Gwin  deserted  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Union  and  joined  the  Confederacy. 
When  this  power  was  broken  up,  he  fled  to  Mexico 
and  entered  the  service  of  Maximilian,  then  puppet 
emperor  of  that  unfortunate  country.  Maximilian 
bestowed  an  abundance  of  hollow  honors  upon  the 
renegade  senator,  and  made  him  Duke  of  the 
Province  of  Sonora,  which  region  Gwin  and  his 
clique  had  doubtless  coveted  as  an  integral  part  of 


78  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

that  "all  slave  holding  states  of  this  con- 
federacy can  establish  a  separate  and  inde- 
pendent government  that  will  be  impreg- 
nable to  the  assaults  of  all  foreign  ene- 
mies." He  further  went  on  to  show  that 
they  had  the  power  to  do  it,  and  asserted 
that  if  the  southern  states  went  out  of  the 
Union,  "  California  would  be  with  the 
South."  Then,  as  a  convincing  proof  of 
his  duplicity,  he  had  these  pro-rebel  state- 
ments stricken  from  the  official  report  of 
his  speech,  that  his  constituents  might  not 
take  fright,  and  perhaps  spoil  some  of  the 
designs  which  he  and  his  scheming  col- 
leagues had  upon  California.  Of  course 
these  remarks  reached  the  ears  of  his  con- 
stituents anyhow,  and  though  prefaced  by 

their  projected  "  Republic  of  the  Pacific.  "  Because  of 
this  empty  title,  the  nickname,  "  Duke, "  was  ever 
afterward  given  him.  When  Maximilian's  soap  bub- 
ble monarchy  had  disappeared,  Gwin  finally  returned 
to  California  where  he  passed  his  old  age  in  retire- 
ment. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       79 

a  studied  evasiveness  on  his  part,  they  con- 
tributed much  to  the  feeling  of  unrest  and 
insecurity  that  then  prevailed  along  the 
Coast. 

It  is  of  course  a  well-known  fact  that 
California  never  did  secede,  and  that  soon 
after  the  war  began,  she  swung  definitely 
and  conclusively  into  the  Union  column. 
The  danger  of  secession  was  wholly  poten- 
tial. Yet  potential  dangers  are  none  the 
less  real.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  deter- 
mined energies  of  a  few  loyalists  in  Cali-  j 
fornia,  led  by  General  E.  V.  Sumner  and 
cooperating  with  the  Federal  Government 
by  means  of  the  swiftest  communication 
then  possible  —  the  Pony  Express  — 
history  today,  might  read  differently. 

Now  to  turn  once  more  to  the  potential 
dangers  *  that  made  the  California  crisis 
a  reality.  About  three-eighths  of  the  pop- 

*  Senate  documents. 


80  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

ulation  were  of  southern  descent  and  sol- 
idly united  in  sympathy  for  the  Confeder- 
ate states.  This  vigorous  minority  in- 
cluded upwards  of  sixteen  thousand 
Knights  of  the  Golden  Circle,  a  pro-Cor- 
federate  secret  organization  that  was  ac- 
tive and  dangerous  in  all  the  doubtful 
states  in  winning  over  to  the  southern 
cause  those  who  feebly  protested  loyalty 
to  the  Union  but  who  opposed  war.  Many 
of  these  "  knights  "  were  prosperous  and 
substantial  citizens  who,  working  under 
the  guise  of  their  local  respectability,  ex- 
erted a  profound  influence.  Here  then,  at 
the  outset,  was  a  vigorous  and  not  a  small 
minority,  whose  influence  was  greatly  out 
of  proportion  to  their  numbers  because  of 
their  zeal ;  and  who  would  have  seized  the 
balance  of  power  unless  held  in  check  by  an 
aroused  Union  sentiment  and  military  in- 
timidation. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       81 

Anotner  class  of  men  to  be  feared  was  a 
small  but  powerful  group  representing 
much  wealth,  a  financial  class  which  pro- 
verbially shuns  war  because  of  the  expense 
which  war  involves;  a  class  that  always  in- 
sists upon  peace,  even  at  the  cost  of  com- 
promised honor.  These  men,  with  the 
influence  which  their  money  commanded, 
would  inevitably  espouse  the  side  that 
seemed  the  most  likely  of  speedy  success; 
and  in  view  of  the  early  successes  of  the 
Confederate  armies  and  the  zealous  prose- 
lyting of  rebel  sympathizers  in  their  midst 
they  were  a  potential  risk  to  loyal  Cali- 
fornia. 

The  native  Spanish  or  Mexican  classes 
then  numerically  strong  in  that  state,  were 
appealed  to  by  the  anti-Unionists  from 
various  cunning  approaches,  chief  of  which 
was  the  theory  that  the  many  real  estate 
troubles  and  complicated  land  titles  by 


82  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

which  they  had  been  annoyed  since  the 
separation  from  Old  Mexico  in  1847 
would  be  promptly  adjusted  under  Con 
federate  authority.  While  nearly  all  thes 
natives  were  ignorant,  many  held  consider 
able  property  and  they  in  turn  influencec 
their  poorer  brethren.  Chimerical  as  thi 
argument  may  sound,  it  had  much  weight 
Another  group  of  persons  also  large  po 
tentially  and  a  serious  menace  when  prose 
lyted  by  the  apostles  of  rebellion,  were  th 
squatters  and  trespassers  who  were  occupy 
ing  land  to  which  they  had  no  lawful  right 
Many  of  these  men  were  reckless 
some  had  already  been  entangled  in  th 
courts  because  of  their  false  land  claims 
Hence  their  attitude  toward  the  existing 
Government  was  ugly  and  defiant.  Ye 
they  were  now  assured  that  they  might  re 
main  on  their  lands  forever  undisturbec 
under  a  rebel  regime. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE        83 

Added  to  all  these  sources  of  danger 
was  the  attitude  of  the  thousands  of  well- 
meaning  people  —  who,  regardless  of 
rebel  solicitation,  were  at  first  indifferent. 
They  thought  that  the  great  distance  which 
separated  them  from  the  seat  of  war  made 
it  a  matter  of  but  little  importance  whether 
California  aroused  herself  or  not.  They 
were  of  course  counselling  neutrality  as  the 
easiest  way  of  avoiding  trouble. 

Turning  now  to  the  forces,  moral,  mili- 
tary, and  political,  that  were  working  to 
save  California  —  first  there  was  a  loyal 
newspaper  press,  which  saw  and  followed 
its  duty  with  unflinching  devotion.  It 
firmly  held  before  the  people  the  loyal  re- 
sponsibility of  the  state  and  declared  that 
I  the  ties  of  union  were  too  sacred  to  be  bro- 
ken. It  was  the  moral  duty  of  the  people 
to  remain  loyal.  It  truthfully  asserted 
that  California's  influence  in  the  Federal 


84  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Union  should  be  an  example  for  other 
states  to  follow.  If  the  idea  of  a  Pacific 
Republic  were  repudiated  by  their  own  citi- 
zens, such  action  would  discourage  seces- 
sion elsewhere  and  be  a  great  moral  handi- 
cap to  that  movement.  And  the  press 
further  pointed  out  with  convincing  clear- 
ness, that  should  the  Union  be  dissolved, 
the  project  for  a  Pacific  Railroad  *  with 
which  the  future  of  the  Commonwealth 
was  inevitably  committed,  would  likely 
fail. 

Aroused  by  the  moral  importance  of  its 
position,  the  state  legislature,  early  in  the 
winter  of  1860-1861,  had  passed  a  resolu- 
tion of  fidelity  to  the  Union,  in  which  it 
declared  "  That  California  is  ready  to 
maintain  the  rights  and  honor  of  the  Na- 

*  All  parties  in  California  were  unanimous  in  their 
desire  'for  a  transcontinental  railroad.  No  political 
faction  there  could  receive  any  support  unless  it 
strongly  endorsed  this  project. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       85 

|  tional  Government  at  home  and  abroad, 
'  and  at  all  times  to  respond  to  any  requisi- 
tions that  may  be  made  upon  her  to  defend 
the  Republic  against  foreign  or  domestic 
foes."  Succeeding  events  proved  the 
genuineness  of  this  resolve. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1861,  the  War 
Department  sent  General  Edwin  A.  Sum- 
ner  to  take  command  of  the  Military  De- 
partment of  the  Pacific  with  headquarters 
at  San  Francisco,  supplanting  General  Al- 
bert Sidney  Johnston  who  resigned  to 
fight  for  the  South.  This  was  a  most  for- 
tunate appointment,  as  Sumner  proved  a 
resourceful  and  capable  official,  ideally 
suited  to  meet  the  crisis  before  him.  Nor 
does  this  reflect  in  any  way  upon  the  superb 
soldierly  qualities  of  his  predecessor.  John- 
ston was  no  doubt  too  manly  an  officer  to 
take  part  in  the  romantic  conspiracies  about 
him.  He  was  every  inch  a  brave  soldier 


86  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

who  did  his  fighting  in  the  open.  Like 
Robert  E.  Lee,  he  joined  the  Confederacy 
in  conscientious  good  faith,  and  he  met 
death  bravely  at  Shiloh  in  April,  1862. 

Sumner  was  a  man  of  action  and  he 
faced  the  situation  squarely.  To  him, 
California  and  the  nation  will  always  be  'jj 
indebted.  One  of  his  first  decisive  acts  was 
to  check  the  secession  movement  in  South- 
ern California  by  placing  a  strong  detach- 
ment of  soldiers  at  Los  Angeles.  This 
force  proved  enough  to  stop  any  incip- 
ient uprisings  in  that  part  of  the  state. 
Some  of  the  disturbing  element  in  this  dis- 
trict then  moved  over  into  Nevada  where 
cooperation  was  made  with  the  pro-Con- 
federate men  there.  The  Nevada  rebel 
faction  had  made  considerable  headway  by 
assuring  unsuspecting  persons  that  it 
was  acting  on  the  authority  of  the  Con- 
federate Government.  On  June  5,  1861, 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       87 

the  rebel  flag  was  unfurled  at  Virginia  City. 
Again  Sumner  acted.  He  immediately 
sent  a  Federal  force  to  garrison  Fort 
Churchill,  and  a  body  of  men  under  Major 
Blake  and  Captain  Moore  seized  all  arms 
found  in  the  possession  of  suspected  per- 
sons. A  rebel  militia  company  with  four 
hundred  men  enrolled  and  one  hundred  un- 
der arms  was  found  and  dispersed  by  the 
Federals.  This  decisive  action  completely 
stopped  any  uprisings  across  the  state  line, 
uprisings  which  might  easily  have  spread 
into  California. 

In  the  meantime,  under  General  Sum- 
ner's  direction,  soldiers  had  been  enlisted 
and  were  being  rapidly  drilled  for  any 
emergency.  The  War  Department,  on  being 
advised  of  this  available  force,  at  once  sent 
the  following  dispatch,  which,  with  those 
that  follow  are  typical  of  the  correspon- 
dence which  the  Pony  Express  couriers 


88  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

were   now   rushing   across   the   Continent 
toward  and  from  Washington. 

Telegraph  and  Pony  Express. 
Adjutant-General's  Office. 

Washington,  July  24,  1861. 
Brigadier  General  Sumner, 

Commanding  Department  of  the  Pacific. 

One  regiment  of  infantry  and  five  companies 

of  cavalry  have  been  accepted  from  California 

to  aid  in  protecting  the  overland  mail  route  via 

Salt  Lake. 

Please  detail  officers  to  muster  these  troops 
into  service.     Blanks  will  be  sent  by  steamer. 
By  order :    GEORGE  D.  RUGGLES. 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

While  recognizing  the  great  need  of  ex- 
tending proper  military  protection  to  the 
mail  route,  it  must  have  been  dishearten- 
ing to  Sumner  and  the  loyalists  to  see  this 
force  ordered  into  service  outside  the  state. 
For  now,  late  in  the  summer  of  1861, — 
the  time  of  national  crisis  —  the  Califor- 
nian  trouble  was  approaching  its  climax. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       89 

On  July  20,  the  Union  army  had  been 
beaten  at  Bull  Run  and  driven  back,  a 
rabble  of  fugitives,  into  the  panic  stricken 
capital.  Then  came  weeks  and  months  of 
delay  and  uncertainty  while  the  over- 
cautious McClellan  sought  to  build  up  a 
new  military  machine.  The  entire  North 
was  overspread  with  gloom;  the  Con- 
federates were  jubilant  and  full  of 
self-confidence.  In  California  the  psychol- 
ogical situation  was  similar  but  even  more 
acute,  for  encouraged  by  Confederate  suc- 
cess, the  rebel  faction  became  bolder  than 
ever,  and  openly  planned  to  win  the  state 
election  to  be  held  on  September  4.  If 
successful  at  the  polls,  the  reins  of  organ- 
ized political  power  would  pass  into  its 
hands  and  a  secession  convention  would  be 
|  a  direct  possibility.  And  to  intensify  the 
!  danger  was  the  confirmed  indifference  or 
stubbornness  of  many  citizens  who  seemed 


00  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

to  place  petty  personal  differences  before 
the  interests  of  the  state  and  nation  at  large. 
As  is  well  known,  Lincoln  and  the  Fed- 
eral Government  accepted  the  defeat  at 
Bull  Run  calmly,  and  set  about  with  grim 
determination  to  whip  the  South  at  any 
cost.  The  President  asked  Congress  for 
four  hundred  thousand  men  and  was  voted 
five  hundred  thousand.  In  pursuance  of 
such  policies,  these  urgent  dispatches  were 
hurried  across  the  country: 

War  Department. 
Washington,  August  14,  1861. 
Hon.  John  G.  Downey, 

Governor  of  California,  Sacramento  City, 

Cal. 

Please  organize,  equip,  and  have  mustered 
into  service,  at  the  earliest  date  possible,  four 
regiments  of  infantry  and  one  regiment  of 
cavalry,  to  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  General 
Sumner.  SIMON  CAMERON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

By  telegraph  to  Fort  Kearney  and  thence 
by  Pony  Express  and  telegraph. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       91 

War  Department,  August  15,  1861. 
Hon.  John  G.  Downey, 

Governor  of  California,  Sacramento  City, 

Cal. 

In  filling  the  requisition  given  you  August 
I4th,  for  five  regiments,  please  make  General 
J.  H.  Carleton  of  San  Francisco,  colonel  of  a 
cavalry  regiment,  and  give  him  proper  author- 
ity to  organize  as  promptly  as  possible. 

SIMON  CAMERON, 
Secretary  of  War. 

Telegraph  and  Pony  Express  and  telegraph. 

The  work  of  enlisting  the  five  thousand 
men  thus  requisitioned  was  carried  forward 
with  great  rapidity.  Within  two  weeks, 
on  the  28th,  the  Pony  Express  brought 
word  that  the  War  Department  was  about 
to  order  this  force  overland  into  Texas, 
to  act,  no  doubt,  as  a  barrier  to  the  advanc- 
ing Confederate  armies  who  were  then 
planning  an  invasion  of  New  Mexico  as  the 
first  decisive  step  in  carrying  the  conflict 
into  the  heart  of  the  Southwest.  It  was 


92  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

understood,  further,  that  General  Sumner 
would  be  ordered  to  vacate  his  position  as 
Commander  of  the  Department  of  the 
Pacific  and  lead  his  recruits  into  the  service. 
To  the  authorities  at  Washington,  a 
campaign  of  aggression  with  western  troops 
had  no  doubt  seemed  the  best  means  of  de- 
fending California  and  adjacent  territory 
from  Confederate  attack.  To  the  Union- 
ists of  California,  the  report  that  their 
troops  and  Sumner  were  to  leave  the  state 
spelt  extreme  discouragement.  They  had 
felt  some  degree  of  hope  and  security  so 
long  as  organized  forces  were  in  their 
midst,  and  the  presence  of  Sumner  every- 
where inspired  confidence  among  discour- 
aged patriots.  To  be  deprived  of  their  sol- 
diers was  bad  enough ;  to  lose  Sumner  was 
intolerable.  Accordingly,  a  formal  peti- 
tion protesting  against  this  action,  was 
drawn  up,  addressed  to  the  War  Depart- 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       93 

ment,  and  signed  by  important  firms  and 
prominent  business  men  of  San  Francisco.* 

*  The  signers  of  this  petition  were :  Robert  C. 
Rogers,  Macondray  &  Co.,  Jno.  Sime  &  Co.,  J.  B, 
Thomas,  W.  W.  Stow,  Horace  P.  James,  Geo.  F. 
Bragg  &  Co.,  Flint,  Peabody  &  Co.,  Wm.  B.  John- 
ston, D.  O.  Mills,  H.  M.  Newhall  &  Co.,  Henry 
Schmildell,  Murphy  Grant  &  Co.,  Wm.  T.  Coleman 

Co.,  DeWitt  Kittle  &  Co.,  Richard  M.  Jessup, 
Graves  Williams  &  Buckley,  Donohoe,  Ralston  &  Co., 
H.  M.  Nuzlee,  Geo.  C.  Shreve  &  Co.,  Peter 
Danahue,  Kellogg,  Hewston  &  Co.,  Moses  Ellis  & 
Co.,  R.  D.  W.  Davis  &  Co.,  L.  B.  Beuchley  &  Co., 
Wm.  A.  Dana,  Jones,  Dixon  &  Co.,  J.  Y.  Halleck  £ 
Co.,  Forbes  &  Babcock,  A.  T.  Lawton,  Geo.  J. 
Brooks  &  Co.,  Jno.  B.  Newton  &  Co.,  Chas.  W. 
Brooks  &  Co.,  James  Patrick  &  Co.,  Locke  &  Mon- 
tague, Janson,  Bond  &  Co.,  Jennings  &  Brewster, 
Treadwell  &  Co.,  William  Alvord  &  Co.,  Shattuck 
&  Hendley,  Randall  &  Jones,  J.  B.  Weir  &  Co.,  B.  C. 
Hand  &  Co.,  O.  H.  Giffin  &  Bro.,  Dodge  &  Shaw, 
Tubbs  &  Co.,  J.  Whitney,  Jr.,  C.  Adolphe  Low  & 
Co.,  Haynes  &  Lawton,  J.  D.  Farnell,  C.  E.  Hitch- 
cock, Geo.  Howes  &  Co.,  Sam  Merritt,  Jacob  Under- 
bill &  Co.,  Morgan  Stone  &  Co.,  J.  W.  Brittan,  T.  H. 
&  J.  S.  Bacon,  R.  B.  Swain  &  Co.,  Fargo  &  Co., 
Nathaniel  Page,  Stevens  Baker  &  Co.,  A.  E.  Brew- 
ster &  Co.,  Fay,  Brooks  &  Backus,  Wm.  Norris,  and 
E.  H.  Parker. 

(Above  data  taken  from  Government  Secret 
Correspondence.  Ordered  printed  by  the  second 
session  of  the  50th  Congress  in  1889,  Senate  Docu- 
ment No.  70.) 


94  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

In  this  petition  they  said  among  other 
things,  that  the  War  Department  prob- 
ably was  not  aware  of  the  real  state  of  af- 
fairs in  California,  and  they  openly  re- 
quested that  the  order  be  rescinded.  They 
declared  that  a  majority  of  the  California 
State  officers  were  out-and-out  secession- 
ists and  that  the  others  were  at  least  hostile 
to  the  administration  and  would  accept 
peace  policy  at  any  sacrifice.  They  were 
suspicious  of  the  Governor's  loyalty  anc 
declared  that,  "  Every  appointment  made 
by  our  Governor  within  the  last  three 
months,  unmistakably  indicates  his  entire 
sympathy  and  cooperation  with  those 
plotting  to  sever  California  from  her  al- 
legiance to  the  Union,  and  that,  too,  at  the 
hazard  of  Civil  War."  * 

Continuing  at  detailed  length,  the  peti- 

*  In  the  writer's  judgment,  these  charges  against 
Governor  Downey  were  prejudicial  and  unjust. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       95 

loners  spoke  of  the  great  effort  being  put 
£orth  by  the  secession  element  to  win  the 
forthcoming  election.  Whereas  their  op- 
ponents were  united,  the  Union  party  was 
divided  into  a  Douglas  and  a  Repub- 
lican faction.  Should  the  anti-Unionists 
triumph,  they  declared  there  were  reasons 
to  expect  not  merely  the  loss  of  California 
to  the  Union  ranks  but  internecine  strife 
and  fratricidal  murders  such  as  were  then 
ravaging  the  Missouri  and  Kansas  border. 
The  petition  then  pointed  out  the  truly 
great  importance  of  California  to  the 
Union,  and  asserted  that  no  precaution 
leading  to  the  preservation  of  her  loyalty 
should  be  overlooked.  It  was  a  thousand 
times  easier  to  retain  a  state  in  allegiance 
than  to  overcome  disloyalty  disguised  as 
state  authority.  The  best  way  to  check 
treasonable  activities  was  to  convince  trait- 
ors of  their  helplessness.  The  petitioners 


96  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

further  declared  that  to  deprive  California 
of  needed  United  States  military  suppor 
just  then,  would  be  a  direct  encouragemen 
to  traitors.  An  ounce  of  precaution  wa 
worth  a  pound  of  cure. 

The  loyalists  triumphed  in  the  state  elec 
tion  on  September  4,  1861,  and  on  tha 
date  the  California  crisis  was  safely  passec 
The  contest,  to  be  sure,  had  revealed  about 
twenty  thousand  anti-Union  voters  in  the 
state,  but  the  success  of  the  Union  faction 
restored  their  feeling  of  self-confidence. 
The  pendulum  had  at  last  swung  safely  in 
the  right  direction,  and  henceforth  Cali- 
fornia could  be  and  was  reckoned  as  a  loyal 
asset  to  the  Union.  Such  expressions  of 
disloyalty  as  her  secessionists  continued  to 
disclose,  were  of  a  sporadic  and  flimsy  na- 
ture, never  materializing  into  a  formidable 
sentiment;  and,  adding  to  their  discourage- 
ment, the  failure  of  the  Confederate  inva- 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       97 

sion  of  New  Mexico  in  1862,  was  no  doubt 
an  important  factor  in  suppressing  any 
further  open  desires  for  secession. 

Sumner  was  not  called  East  until  the 
October  following  the  election.  His  re- 
moval of  course  caused  keen  regret  along 
the  coast;  but  Colonel  George  Wright,  his 
successor  in  charge  of  the  Department  of 
the  Pacific,  proved  a  masterful  man  and  in 
every  way  equal  to  the  situation.  In  the 
long  run,  Colonel  Wright  probably  was  as 
satisfactory  to  the  loyal  people  of  Califor- 
nia as  General  Sumner  had  been.  The  five 
thousand  troops  were  not  detailed  for  duty 
in  the  South.  Like  the  first  detachment  of 
fifteen  hundred,  their  efforts  were  directed 
mainly  to  protecting  the  overland  mails 
and  guarding  the  frontier.* 

*  During  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  California 
raised  16,231  troops,  more  than  the  whole  United 
States  army  had  been  at  the  commencement  of  hos- 
tilities. Practically  all  these  soldiers  were  assigned 


98  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Throughout  this  crisis,  news  was  re- 
ceived twice  a  week  by  the  Pony  Express, 
and,  be  it  remembered,  in  less  than  half  the 
time  required  by  the  old  stage  coach.  Of 
its  services  then,  no  better  words  can  be 
used  than  those  of  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft. 

It  was  the  pony  to  which  every  one  looked 
for  deliverance ;  men  prayed  for  the  safety  of 
the  little  beast,  and  trembled  lest  the  service 
should  be  discontinued.  Telegraphic  dispatches 
from  Washington  and  New  York  were  sent 
to  St.  Louis  and  thence  to  Fort  Kearney, 
whence  the  pony  brought  them  to  Sacramento 
where  they  were  telegraphed  to  San  Francisco. 

Great  was  the  relief  of  the  people  when 
Hole's  bill  for  a  daily  mail  service  was  passed 
and  the  service  changed  from  the  Southern 
to  the  Central  route,  as  it  was  early  in  the 

to  routine  and  patrol  duty  in  the  far  West,  such  as 
keeping  down  Indian  revolts,  and  garrisoning  forts, 
as  a  defense  against  any  uprising  of  Indians,  or  pro- 
tection against  Confederate  invasion.  The  excep- 
tions were  the  California  Hundred,  and  the  Cal- 
ifornia Four  Hundred,  volunteer  detachments  who 
went  East  of  their  own  accord  and  won  undying 
honors  in  the  thick  of  the  struggle. 


THE  SECESSION  MENACE       99 

summer.    *    *    *    Yet  after  all,  it  was  to  the 
|  fly  ing  pony  that  all  eyes  and  hearts  were  turned. 

The  Pony  Express  was  a  real  factor  in 
the  preservation  of  California  to  the 
Union. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RIDERS  AND  FAMOUS  RIDES 

Bart  Riles,  the  pony  rider,  died  this  morn- 
ing from  wounds  received  at  Cold  Springs, 
May  16. 

The  men  at  Dry  Creek  Station  have  all  been 
killed  and  it  is  thought  those  at  Robert's  Creek 
have  met  with  the  same  fate. 

Six  Pike's  Peakers  found  the  body  of  the 
station  keeper  horribly  mutilated,  the  station 
burned,  and  all  the  stock  missing  from 
Simpson's. 

Eight  horses  were  stolen  from  Smith's  Creek 
on  last  Monday,  supposedly  by  road  agents. 

r  1 1  HE  above  are  random  extracts  from 
•••      frontier  newspapers,  printed  while 
the  Pony  Express  was  running.    The  Ex- 
press could  never  have  existed  on  its  high 
plane  of  efficiency,  without  an  abundance 
of  coolheaded,  hardened  men;  men  who 
knew  not  fear  and  who  were  expert  — 
100 


FAMOUS  HIDES 

though  sometimes  in  vain  —  in  all  the  won- 
derful arts  of  self-preservation  practiced  on 
the  old  frontier.  That  these  employes  could 
lave  performed  even  the  simplest  of  their 
duties,  without  stirring  and  almost  incred- 
ble  adventures,  it  is  needless  to  assert. 

The  faithful  relation  of  even  a  consid- 
erable number  of  the  thrilling  experiences 
to  which  the  "  Pony  "  men  were  subjected 
would  discount  fiction.  Yet  few  of  these 
adventures  have  been  recorded.  Today, 
iafter  a  lapse  of  over  fifty  years,  nearly  all 
of  the  heroes  who  achieved  them  have  gone 
out  on  that  last  long  journey  from  which 
no  man  returns.  While  history  can  pay 
jthe  tribute  of  preserving  some  anecdotes 
of  them  and  their  collective  achievements, 
it  must  be  forever  silent  as  to  many  of  their 
personal  acts  of  heroism. 

While  lasting  praise  is  due  the  faithful 
station  men  who,  in  their  isolation,  so  often 


102          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

bore  the  murderous  attacks  of  Indians  and 
bandits,  it  is,  perhaps,  to  the  riders  that 
the  seeker  of  romance  is  most  likely  to  turn. 
It  was  the  riders'  skill  and  fortitude  that 
made  the  operation  of  the  line  possible. 
Both  riders  and  hostlers  shared  the  same 
privations,  often  being  reduced  to  the  nec- 
essity of  eating  wolf  meat  and  drinking 
foul  or  brackish  water. 

While  each  rider  was  supposed  to  av- 
erage seventy-five  miles  a  trip,  riding  from 
three  to  seven  horses,  accidents  were  likely 
to  occur,  and  it  was  not  uncommon  for  a 
man  to  lose  his  way.  Such  delays  meant 
serious  trouble  in  keeping  the  schedule, 
keyed  up,  as  it  was,  to  the  highest  possible 
speed.  It  was  confronting  such  emer- 
gencies, and  in  performing  the  duties  of 
comrades  who  had  been  killed  or  disabled 
while  awaiting  their  turns  to  ride,  that  the 
most  exciting  episodes  took  place. 


FAMOUS  RIDES  108 

*  Among  the  more  famous  riders  *  was 
Jim  Moore  who  later  became  a  ranchman 
in  the  South  Platte  Valley,  Nebraska. 
Moore  made  his  greatest  ride  on  June  8, 
1860.  He  happened  to  be  at  Midway  Sta- 
tion, half  way  between  the  Missouri  River 
and  Denver,  when  the  west-bound  messen- 
ger arrived  with  important  Government 


|dispatches  to  California.  Moore  "  took  up 
the  run,"  riding  continuously  one  hun- 
idred  and  forty  miles  to  old  Julesburg,  the 
end  of  his  division.  Here  he  met  the  east- 
bound  messenger,  also  with  important  mis- 
sives, from  the  Coast  to  Washington.  By 
all  the  rules  of  the  game  Moore  should  have 
rested  a  few  hours  at  this  point,  but  his 
successor,  who  would  have  picked  up  the 
pouch  and  started  eastward,  had  been  killed 
the  day  before.  The  mail  must  go,  and 
ithe  schedule  must  be  sustained.  Without 

*  Root  and  Connelley. 


104          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 


asking  any  favors  of  the  man  who  had  just 
arrived  from  the  West,  Moore  resumed 
the  saddle,  after  a  delay  of  only  ten  min- 
utes, without  even  stopping  to  eat,  and  was 
soon  pounding  eastward  on  his  return  trip. 
He  made  it,  too,  in  spite  of  lurking  In- 
dians, hunger  and  fatigue,  covering  the 
round  trip  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  miles 
in  fourteen  hours  and  forty-six  minutes  — 
an  average  speed  of  over  eighteen  miles 
an  hour.  Furthermore,  his  west-bound 
mail  had  gone  through  from  St.  Joseph  to 
Sacramento  on  a  record-making  run  of 
eight  days  and  nine  hours. 

William  James,  always  called  "  Bill  " 
James,  was  a  native  of  Virginia.  He  had 
crossed  the  plains  with  his  parents  in  a 
wagon  train  when  only  five  years  old.  At 
eighteen,  he  was  one  of  the  best  Pony  Ex- 
press riders  in  the  service.  James's  route 
lay  between  Simpson's  Park  and  Cole 


FAMOUS  RIDES  105 

Springs,  Nevada,  in  the  Smoky  Valley 
range  of  mountains.  He  rode  only  sixty 
miles  each  way  but  covered  his  round  trip 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  twelve 
hours,  including  all  stops.  He  always  rode 
California  mustangs,  using  five  of  these 
animals  each  way.  His  route  crossed  the 
summits  of  two  mountain  ridges,  lay 
through  the  Shoshone  Indian  country,  and 
was  one  of  the  loneliest  and  most  dangerous 
divisions  on  the  line.  Yet  "  Bill  "  never 
took  time  to  think  about  danger,  nor  did 
he  ever  have  any  serious  trouble. 

Theodore  Rand  rode  the  Pony  Express 
during  the  entire  period  of  its  organiza- 
tion. His  run  was  from  Box  Elder  to 
,  Julesburg,  one  hundred  and  ten  miles  and 
he  made  the  entire  distance  both  ways  by 
night.  His  schedule,  night  run  though  it 
was,  required  a  gait  of  ten  miles  an  hour, 
but  Rand  often  made  it  at  an  average  of 


106          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

twelve,  thus  saving  time  on  the  through 
schedule  for  some  unfortunate  rider  who 
might  have  trouble  and  delay.  Originally, 
Rand  used  only  four  or  five  horses  each 
way,  but  this  number,  in  keeping  with  the 
revised  policy  of  the  Company,  was  after- 
ward doubled,  an  extra  mount  being  fur- 
nished him  every  twelve  or  fifteen  miles. 

Johnnie  Frey  who  has  already  been  men- 
tioned as  the  first  rider  out  of  St.  Joseph, 
was  little  more  than  a  boy  when  he  en- 
tered the  pony  service.  He  was  a  native 
Missourian,  weighing  less  than  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  pounds.  Though 
small  in  stature,  he  was  every  inch  a  man. 
Frey's  division  ran  from  St.  Joseph  to  Se- 
neca, Kansas,  eighty  miles,  which  he  cov- 
ered at  an  average  of  twelve  and  one  half 
miles  an  hour,  including  all  stops.  When 
the  war  started,  Frey  enlisted  in  the  Union 
army  under  General  Blunt.  His  short  but 


FAMOUS  RIDES  107 

worthy  career  was  cut  short  in  1863  when 
he  fell  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight  with  rebel 
bushwhackers  in  Arkansas.  In  this,  his 
last  fight,  Frey  is  said  to  have  killed  five 
of  his  assailants  before  being  struck  down. 
Jim  Beatley,  whose  real  name  was 
Foote,  was  another  Virginian,  about 
twenty-five  years  of  age.  He  rode  on  an 
eastern  division,  usually  west  out  of  Se- 
neca. On  one  occasion,  he  traveled  from 
I  Seneca  to  Big  Sandy,  fifty  miles  and  back, 

!  doubling  his  route  twice  in  one  week, 
i 

Beatley  was  killed  by  a  stage  hand  in  a  per- 
sonal quarrel,  the  affair  taking  place  on  a 
ranch  in  Southern  Nebraska  in  1862. 

William  Boulton  was  one  of  the  older 
! riders  in  the  service;  his  age  at  that  time  is 
given  at  about  thirty-five.  Boulton  rode 
:for  about  three  months  with  Beatley.*  On 

*Pony  riders  often  alternated  "runs"  with  each 
other  over  their  respective  divisions  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  do  railroad  train  crews  at  the  present  time. 


108          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

one  occasion,  while  running  between  Se- 
neca and  Guittards',  Boulton's  horse  gave 
out  when  five  miles  from  the  latter  station. 
Without  a  moment's  delay,  he  removed  his 
letter  pouch  and  hurried  the  mail  in  on 
foot,  where  a  fresh  horse  was  at  once  pro- 
vided and  the  schedule  resumed. 
/  Melville  Baughn,  usually  known  as 
"  Mel,"  had  a  pony  run  between  Fort 
Kearney  and  Thirty-two-mile  Creek.  Once 
while  "  laying  off  "  between  trips,  a  thief 
made  off  with  his  favorite  horse.  Scarcely 
had  the  miscreant  gotten  away  when 
Baughn  discovered  the  loss.  Hastily  sad- 
dling another  steed,  "  Mel  "  gave  pursuit, 
and  though  handicapped,  because  the  out- 
law had  the  pick  of  the  stable,  Baughn's 
superior  horsemanship,  even  on  an  inferior 
mount,  soon  told.  After  a  chase  of  sev- 
eral miles,  he  forced  the  fellow  so  hard 
that  he  abandoned  the  stolen  animal  at  a 


FAMOUS  RIDES  109 

place  called  Loup  Fork,  and  sneaked  away. 
Recovering  the  horse,  Baughn  then  re- 
turned to  his  station,  found  a  mail  awaiting 
him,  and  was  off  on  his  run  without  further 
delay.  With  him  and  his  fellow  employes, 
running  down  a  horse  thief  was  but  a 
trifling  incident  and  an  annoyance  merely 
because  of  the  bother  and  delay  which  it 
necessitated.  Baughn  was  afterward 
hanged  for  murder  at  Seneca,  but  his  serv- 
ices to  the  Pony  Express  were  above  re- 
proach. 

Another  Eastern  Division  man  was  Jack 
Keetly,  who  also  rode  from  St.  Joseph  to 
Seneca,  alternating  at  times  with  Frey  and 
Baughn.  Keetley's  greatest  performance, 
and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  ever 
achieved  in  the  service,  was  riding  from 
Rock  Creek  to  St.  Joseph ;  then  back  to  his 
starting  point  and  on  to  Seneca,  and  from 
Seneca  once  more  to  Rock  Creek  —  three 


110          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

hundred  and  forty  miles  without  rest.  He 
traveled  continuously  for  thirty-one  hours, 
his  entire  run  being  at  the  rate  of  eleven 
miles  an  hour.  During  the  last  five  miles 
'  of  his  journey,  he  fell  asleep  in  the  saddle 
and  in  this  manner  concluded  his  long  trip. 
Don  C.  Rising,  who  afterwards  settled 
in  Northern  Kansas,  was  born  in  Painted 
Post,  Steuben  County,  New  York,  in  1844, 
and  came  West  when  thirteen  years  of  age. 
He  rode  in  the  pony  service  nearly  a  year, 
from  November,  1860,  until  the  line  was 
,  abandoned  the  following  October,  most  of 
his  service  being  rendered  before  he  was 
seventeen.  Much  of  his  time  was  spent 
running  eastward  out  of  Fort  Kearney  un- 
til the  telegraph  had  reached  that  point  and 
made  the  operation  of  the  Express  between 
the  fort  and  St.  Joseph  no  longer  neces- 
sary. On  two  occasions,  Rising  is  said  to 
have  maintained  a  continuous  speed  of 


FAMOUS  RIDES  111 

twenty  miles  an  hour  while  carrying  im- 
portant dispatches  between  Big  Sandy  and 
Rock  Creek. 

One  rider  who  was  well  known  as  "  Lit- 
tle Yank  "  was  a  boy  scarcely  out  of  his 
teens  and  weighing  barely  one  hundred 
pounds.  He  rode  along  the  Platte  River 
between  Cottonwood  Springs  and  old 
Julesburg  and  frequently  made  one  hun- 
dred miles  on  a  single  trip. 

Another  man  named  Hogan,  of  whom 
little  is  known,  rode  northwesterly  out  of 
Julesburg  across  the  Platte  and  to  Mud 
Springs,  eighty  miles. 

Jimmy  Clark  rode  between  various  sta- 
tions east  of  Fort  Kearney,  usually  between 
Big  Sandy  and  Hollenburg.  Sometimes 
his  run  took  him  as  far  West  as  Liberty 
Farm  on  the  Little  Blue  River. 

James  W.  Brink,  or  "  Dock  "  Brink  as 
he  was  known  to  his  associates,  was  one  of 


THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

the  early  riders,  entering  the  employ  of  the 
Pony  Express  Company  in  April,  1860. 
While  "  Dock  "  made  a  good  record  as  a 
courier,  his  chief  fame  was  gained  in  a 
fight  at  Rock  Creek  station,  in  which  Brink 
and  Wild  Bill  *  "  cleaned  out "  the  Mc- 
Candless  gang  of  outlaws,  killing  five  of 
their  number. 

Charles  Cliff  had  an  eighty-mile  pony 
run  when  only  seventeen  years  of  age,  but, 
like  Brink,  young  Cliff  gained  his  greatest 
reputation  as  a  fighter,  —  in  his  case  fight- 
ing Indians.  It  seems  that  while  Cliff  was 
once  freighting  with  a  small  train  of  nine 
wagons,  it  was  attacked  by  a  party  of  one 

*  "  Wild  Bill  "  Hickock  was  one  of  the  most  noted 
gun  fighters  that  the  West  ever  produced.  As  mar- 
shal of  Abilene,  Kansas,  and  other  wild  frontier 
towns  he  became  a  terror  to  bad  men  and  compelled 
them  to  respect  law  and  order  when  under  his  juris- 
diction. Probably  no  man  has  ever  equalled  him  in 
the  use  of  the  six  shooter.  Numerous  magazine 
articles  describing  his  career  can  be  found. 


FAMOUS  RIDES  113 

lundred  Sioux  Indians  and  besieged  for 
three  days  until  a  larger  train  approached 
and  drove  the  redskins  away.  During  the 
:onflict,  Cliff  received  three  bullets  in  his 
3ody  and  twenty-seven  in  his  clothing,  but 
Jie  soon  recovered  from  his  injuries,  and 
was  afterward  none  the  less  valuable  to 
:he  Pony  Express  service. 

J.  G.  Kelley,  later  a  citizen  of  Denver, 
tf  as  a  veteran  pony  man.  He  entered  the 
employ  of  the  company  at  the  outset,  and 
lelped  Superintendent  Roberts  to  lay  out 
,he  route  across  Nevada.  Along  the  Car- 
bon River,  tiresome  stretches  of  corduroy 
road  had  to  be  built.  Kelley  relates  that 
n  constructing  this  highway  willow  trees 

re  cut  near  the  stream  and  the  trunks  cut 
nto  the  desired  lengths  before  being  laid 
n  place.  The  men  often  had  to  carry  these 
timbers  in  their  arms  for  three  hundred 
yards,  while  the  mosquitoes  swarmed  so 


THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

thickly  upon  their  faces  and  hands  as  tc 
make  their  real  color  and  identity  hard  tc 
determine. 

At  the  Sink  of  the  Carson,*  a  great  de 
pression  of  the  river  on  its  course  through 
the  desert,  Kelley  assisted  in  building 
fort  for  protecting  the  line  against  In- 
dians.   Here  there  were  no  rocks  nor  tim- 
ber, and  so  the  structure  had  to  be  built 
of  adobe  mud.  To  get  this  mud  to  a  proper 
consistency,  the  men  tramped  it  all  day 
with  their  bare  feet.    The  soil  was  soakec 
with  alkali,  and  as  a  result,  according  to 
Kelley's  story,  their  feet  were  swollen 
as  to  resemble  "  hams." 

They  next  erected  a  fort  at  Sand  Spring 
twenty  miles  from  Carson  Lake,  and  an- 
other at  Cold  Springs,   thirty-two  miles 
east  of  Sand  Springs.     At  Cold  Springs 
Kelley   was   appointed   assistant   station- 

*  Inman  &  Cody,  Salt  Lake  Trail. 


FAMOUS  RIDES  115 

ceeper  under  Jim  McNaughton.  An  out- 
break of  the  Pah-Ute  Indians  was  now  in 
progress,  and  as  the  little  station  was  in 
the  midst  of  the  disturbed  area,  there  was 
plenty  of  excitement. 

One  night  while  Kelley  was  on  guard 
lis  attention  was  attracted  by  the  uneasi- 
ness   of    the    horses.      Gazing    carefully 
.hrough  the  dim  light,  he  saw  an  Indian 
peering  over  the  outer  wall  or  stockade. 
The  orders  of  the  post  were  to  shoot  every 
'ndian  that  came  within  range,  so  Kelley 
)lazed  away,  but  missed  his  man.    In  the 
morning,  many  tracks  were  found  about  the 
)lace.      This    wild    shot    had    probably 
[frightened  the  prowlers  away,  saving  the 
(station  from  attack,  and  certain  destruc- 
tion. 

During  this  same  morning,  a  Mexican 
pony  rider  came  in,  mortally  wounded, 
having  been  shot  by  the  savages  from  am- 


116          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

bush  while  passing  through  a  dense  thicket 
in  the  vicinity  known  as  Quaking  Asp  Bot- 
tom. Although  given  tender  care,  the  poor 
fellow  died  within  a  few  hours  after  his 
arrival.  The  mail  was  waiting  and  it  must 
go.  Kelley,  who  was  the  lightest  man  in 
in  the  place  —  he  weighed  but  one  hun- 
dred pounds  —  was  now  ordered  by  the 
boss  to  take  the  dead  man's  place,  and  go 
on  with  the  dispatches.  This  he  did,  fin- 
ishing the  run  without  further  incident.  On 
his  return  trip  he  had  to  pass  once  more 
through  the  aspen  thicket  where  his  pred- 
ecessor had  received  his  death  wound. 
This  was  one  of  the  most  dangerous  points 
on  the  entire  trail,  for  the  road  zigzagged 
through  a  jungle,  following  a  passage-way 
that  was  only  large  enough  to  admit  a 
horse  and  rider ;  for  two  miles  a  man  could 
not  see  more  than  thirty  or  forty  feet 
ahead.  Kelley  was  expecting  trouble,  and 


FAMOUS  RIDES  117 

went  tnrough  like  a  whirlwind,  at  the  same 
time  holding  a  repeating  rifle  in  readiness 
[should  trouble  occur.  On  having  cleared 
the  thicket,  he  drew  rein  on  the  top  of  a 
Ihill,  and,  looking  back  over  his  course,  saw 
|the  bushes  moving  in  a  suspicious  manner. 
Knowing  there  was  no  live  stock  in  that 
'locality  and  that  wild  game  rarely 
abounded  there,  he  sent  several  shots  in  the 
direction  of  the  moving  underbrush.  The 
motion  soon  ceased,  and  he  galloped  on- 
ward, unharmed. 

A  few  days  later,  two  United  States 
soldiers,  while  traveling  to  join  their  com- 
mand, were  ambushed  and  murdered  in  the 
same  thicket. 

This  was  about  the  time  when  Major 
Ormsby's  command  was  massacred  by  the 
Utes  in  the  disaster  at  Pyramid  Lake,* 
and  the  Indians  everywhere  in  Nevada 

*  Bancroft. 


118          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

were  unusually  aggressive  and  dangerous 
There  were  seldom  more  than  three  or 
four  men  in  the  little  station  and  it  is  re- 
markable that  Kelley  and  his  companions 
were  not  all  killed. 

One  of  Kelley' s  worst  rides,  in  addition 
to  the  episode  just  related,  wras  the  stretch 
between  Cold  Springs  and  Sand  Springs  - 
for  thirty-seven  miles  without  a  drop 
water  along  the  way. 

Once,  while  dashing  past  a  wagon  train 
of  immigrants,  a  whole  fusillade  of  bul- 
lets was  fired  at  Kelley  who  narrowly  es- 
caped with  his  life.  Of  course  he  coulc 
not  stop  the  mail  to  see  why  he  had  been 
shot  at,  but  on  his  return  trip  he  met  the 
same  crowd,  and  in  unprintable  language 
told  them  what  he  thought  of  their  lawless 
and  irresponsible  conduct.  The  only  sat- 
isfaction he  could  get  from  them  in  reply 
was  the  repeated  assertion,  "  We  thought 


FAMOUS  RIDES  119 

you  was  an  Indian !  "  *  Nor  was  Kelley 
the  only  pony  rider  who  took  narrow 
chances  from  the  guns  of  excited  immi- 
grants. Traveling  rapidly  and  un- 
encumbered, the  rider,  sunburned  and 
blackened  by  exposure,  must  have  borne 
on  first  glance  no  little  resemblance  to  an 
Indian;  and  especially  would  the  mistake 
be  natural  to  excited  wagon-men  who  were 
always  in  fear  of  dashing  attacks  from 
mounted  Indians  —  attacks  in  which  a 
single  rider  would  often  be  deployed  to 
ride  past  the  white  men  at  utmost  speed 
in  order  to  draw  their  fire.  Then  when 

*  Indians  would  sometimes  gaze  in  open-mouthed 
wonder  at  the  on-rushing  ponies.  To  some  of  them, 
the  "  pony  outfit "  was  "  bad  medicine  "  and  not  to  be 
molested.  There  was  a  certain  air  of  mystery  about 
the  wonderful  system  and  untiring  energy  with  which 
the  riders  followed  their  course.  Unfortunately,  a 
majority  of  the  red  men  were  not  always  content  to 
watch  the  Express  in  simple  wonder.  They  were 
too  frequently  bent  upon  committing  deviltry  to 
refrain  from  doing  harm  whenever  they  had  a  chance. 


120          THE  POXY  EXPRESS 

their  guns  were  empty  a  hidden  band  of 
savages  would  make  a  furious  onslaught. 
It  was  the  established  rule  of  the  West  in 
those  days,  in  case  of  suspected  danger,  to 
shoot  first,  and  make  explanations  after- 
ward; to  do  to  the  other  fellow  as  he  woulc 
do  to  you,  and  do  it  first ! 

Added  to  the  perils  of  the  wilderness  - 
deserts,  blizzards,  and  wild  Indians  —  the 
pony  riders,  then,  had  at  times  to  beware 
of  their  white  friends  under  such  circum- 
stances as  have  been  narrated.  And  that 
added  to  the  tragical  romance  of  their  daily 
lives.  Yet  they  courted  danger  and  were 
seldom  disappointed,  for  danger  was  al- 
ways near  them. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ANECDOTES   OF   THE   TRAIL   AND   HONOR 
ROLL 

NO  DETAILED  account  of  the  Pony 
Express  would  be  complete  without 
mentioning  the  adventures  of  Robert 
Haslam,  in  those  days  called  "  Pony  Bob," 
and  William  F.  Cody,  who  is  known  to 
fame  and  posterity  as  "  Buffalo  Bill." 

Haslam's  banner  performance  came 
about  in  a  matter-of-fact  way,  as  is  gen- 
erally the  case  with  deeds  of  heroism.  On 
a  certain  trip  during  the  Ute  raids  men- 
tioned in  the  last  chapter,  he  stopped  at 
Reed's  Station  on  the  Carson  River  in 
Nevada,  and  found  no  change  of  horses, 
since  all  the  animals  had  been  appropriated 
by  the  white  men  of  the  vicinity  for  a  cam- 
paign against  the  Indians.  Haslam  there- 
121 


122          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

fore  fed  the  horse  he  was  riding,  and  after 
a  short  rest  started  for  Bucklands,*  the 
next  station  which  was  fifteen  miles  down 
the  river.  He  had  already  ridden  seventy- 
five  miles  and  was  due  to  lay  off  at  the  lat- 
ter place.  But  on  arriving,  his  successor, 
a  man  named  Johnson  Richardson,  was 
unable  or  indisposed  to  go  on  with  the 
mail.f  It  happened  that  Division  Super- 
intendent W.  C.  Marley  was  at  Bucklands 
when  Haslam  arrived,  and,  since  Richard- 
son would  not  go  on  duty,  Marley  offeree 
"Pony  Bob"  fifty  dollars  bonus  if  he 
would  take  up  the  route.  Haslam 
promptly  accepted  the  proposal,  and  within 

*  Afterwards  named  Fort  Churchill.  This  ride 
took  place  in  the  summer  of  1860. 

t  Some  reports  say  that  Richardson  was  stricken 
with  fear.  That  he  was  probably  suffering  from 
overwrought  nerves,  resulting  from  excessive  risks 
which  his  run  had  involved,  is  a  more  correct  in- 
ference. This  is  the  only  case  on  record  of  a  pony 
messenger  failing  to  respond  to  duty,  unless  killec 
or  disabled. 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     123 

ten  minutes  was  off,  armed  with  a  revolver 
and  carbine,  on  his  new  journey.  He  at 
first  had  a  lonesome  ride  of  thirty-five  miles 
to  the  Sink  of  the  Carson.  Reaching  the 
place  without  mishap,  he  changed  mounts 
and  hurried  on  for  thirty-seven  miles  over 
the  alkali  wastes  and  through  the  sand 
until  he  came  to  Cold  Springs.  Here  he 
again  changed  horses  and  once  more  dashed 
on,  this  time  for  thirty  miles  without  stop- 
ping, till  Smith's  Creek  was  reached  where 
he  was  relieved  by  J.  G.  Kelley.  "  Bob  " 
had  thus  ridden  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  miles  without  stopping  except  to 
change  mounts.  At  Smith's  Creek  he  slept 
nine  hours  and  then  started  back  with  the 
return  mail.  On  reaching  Cold  Springs 
once  more,  he  found  himself  in  the  midst 
of  tragedy.  The  Indians  had  been  there. 
The  horses  had  been  stolen.  All  was  in 
ruins.  Nearby  lay  the  corpse  of  the  faith- 


THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

ful  station-keeper.  Small  cheer  for  a  tired 
horse  and  rider!  Haslam  watered  his 
steed  and  pounded  ahead  without  rest  or 
refreshment.  Before  he  had  covered  half 
the  distance  to  the  next  station,  darkness 
was  falling.  The  journey  was  enshrouded 
with  danger.  On  every  side  were  huge 
clumps  of  sage-bush  which  would  offer  ex- 
cellent chances  for  savages  to  lie  in  ambush. 
The  howling  of  wolves  added  to  the  dole- 
fulness  of  the  trip.  And  haunting  him 
continuously  was  the  thought  of  the  ruined 
little  station  and  the  stiffened  corpse 
behind  him.  But  pony  riders  were  men  of 
courage  and  nerve,  and  Bob  was  no  excep- 
tion. He  arrived  at  Sand  Springs  safely; 
but  here  there  was  to  be  no  rest  nor  delay. 
After  reporting  the  outrage  he  had  just 
seen,  he  advised  the  station  man  of  his 
danger,  and,  after  changing  horses,  in- 
duced the  latter  to  accompany  him  on 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     125 

to  the  Sink  of  the  Carson,  which 
move  doubtless  saved  the  latter's  life. 
Reaching  the  Carson,  they  found  a  badly 
frightened  lot  of  men  who  had  been  at- 
tacked by  the  Indians  only  a  few  hours 
previously.  A  party  of  fifteen  with  plenty 
of  arms  and  ammunition  had  gathered  in 
the  adobe  station,  which  was  large  enough 
also  to  accommodate  as  many  horses. 
Nearby  was  a  cool  spring  of  water,  and, 
thus  fortified,  they  were  to  remain,  in  a 
state  of  siege,  if  necessary,  until  the  ma- 
rauders withdrew  from  that  vicinity.  Of 
course  they  implored  Haslam  to  remain 
with  them  and  not  risk  his  life  venturing 
away  with  the  mail.  But  the  mail  must 
go;  and  the  schedule,  hard  as  it  was,  must 
be  maintained.  "  Bob  "  had  no  concep- 
tion of  fear,  and  so  he  galloped  away,  after, 
an  hour's  rest.  And  back  into  Bucklands 
he  came  unharmed,  after  having  suffered 


126          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

only  three  and  a  half  hours  of  delay. 
Superintendent  Marley,  who  was  still  pres- 
ent when  the  daring  rider  returned,  at 
once  raised  his  bonus  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  dollars. 

Nor  was  this  all  of  Haslam's  great 
achievement.  The  west-bound  mail  would 
soon  arrive,  and  there  was  nobody  to  take 
his  regular  run.  So  after  resting  an  hour 
and  a  half,  he  resumed  the  saddle  and  hur- 
ried back  along  his  old  trail,  over  the  Sier- 
ras to  Friday's  Station.  Then  "Bob" 
rested  after  having  ridden  three  hundred 
and  eighty  miles  with  scarcely  eleven  hours 
of  lay-off,  and  within  a  very  few  hours  of 
regular  schedule  time  all  the  way.  In 
speaking  of  this  performance  afterwards, 
Haslam  *  modestly  admitted  that  he  was 

*  After  the  California  Pony  Express  was  aban- 
doned, Bob  rode  for  Wells  Fargo  &  Co.,  between 
Friday's  Station  and  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  a  dis- 
tance of  one  hundred  miles.  He  seems  to  have 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     127 

"  rather  tired,"  but  that  "  the  excitement 
of  the  trip  had  braced  him  up  to  stand  the 
journey." 

The  most  widely  known  of  all  the  pony 
riders  is  William  F.  Cody  —  usually  called 
"  Bill,"  who  in  early  life  resided  in  Kansas 
and  was  raised  amid  the  exciting  scenes  of 
frontier  life.  Cody  had  an  unusually  dan- 
gerous route  between  Red  Buttes  and 
Three  Crossings.  The  latter  place  was 
on  the  Sweetwater  River,  and  derived  its 
name  from  the  fact  that  the  stream  which 
followed  the  bed  of  a  rocky  canon,  had  to 
be  crossed  three  times  within  a  space  of 

enjoyed  horseback  riding,  for  he  made  this  round- 
trip  journey  in  twenty- four  hours.  When  the  Central 
Pacific  R.  R.  was  built,  and  th4s  pony  line  abandoned, 
Haslam  rode  for  six  months  a  twenty-three  mile 
division  between  Virginia  City  and  Reno,  traveling 
the  distance  in  less  than  one  hour.  To  accomplish 
this  feat,  he  used  a  relay  of  fifteen  horses.  He  was 
afterwards  transferrel  to  Idaho  where  he  continued 
in  a  similar  capacity  on  a  one  hundred  mile  run 
before  quitting  the  service  for  a  less  exciting  voca- 
tion. 


128          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

sixty  yards.  The  water  coming  down 
from  the  mountains,  was  always  icy  cold 
and  the  current  swift,  deep,  and  treacher- 
ous. The  whole  bottom  of  the  canon  was 
often  submerged,  and  in  attempting  to 
follow  its  course  along  the  channel  of  the 
stream,  both  horse  and  rider  were  liable  to 
plunge  at  any  time  into  some  abysmal 
whirlpool.  Besides  the  excitement  which 
the  Three  Crossings  and  an  Indian  country 
furnished,  Cody's  trail  ran  through  a  re- 
gion that  was  often  frequented  by  despera- 
does. Furthermore,  he  had  to  ford  the 
North  Platte  at  a  point  where  the  stream 
was  half  a  mile  in  width  and  in  places 
twelve  feet  deep.  Though  the  current  was 
at  times  slow,  dangers  from  quicksand 
were  always  to  be  feared  on  these  prairie 
rivers.  Cody,  then  but  a  youth,  had  to  sur- 
mount these  obstacles  and  cover  his  trip  at 
an  average  of  fifteen  miles  an  hour. 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     129 

Cody  entered  the  Pony  Express  service 
just  after  the  line  had  been  organized.  At 
Julesburg  he  met  George  Chrisman,  an  old 
friend  who  was  head  wagon-master  for 
Russell,  Majors,  and  Waddell's  freight- 
ing department.  Chrisman  was  at  the  time 
acting  as  an  agent  for  the  express  line,  and, 
out  of  deference  to  the  youth,  he  hired 
him  temporarily  to  ride  the  division  then 
held  by  a  pony  man  named  Trotter.  It 
was  a  short  route,  one  of  the  shortest  on 
the  system,  aggregating  only  forty-five 
miles,  and  with  three  relays  of  horses  each 
way.  Cody,  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
the  saddle  all  his  young  life,  had  no  trouble 
in  following  the  schedule,  but  after  keep- 
ing the  run  several  weeks,  the  lad  was  re- 
lieved by  the  regular  incumbent,  and  then 
went  east,  to  Leavenworth,  where  he  fell 
in  with  another  old  friend,  Lewis  Simp- 
son, then  acting  as  wagon  boss  and  fitting 


130          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

up  at  Atchison  a  wagon  train  of  supplies 
for  the  old  stage  line  at  Fort  Laramie  and 
points  beyond.  Acting  through  Simpson, 
Cody  obtained  a  letter  of  recommendation 
from  Mr.  Russell,  the  head  of  the  firm,  ad- 
dressed to  Jack  Slade,  Superintendent  of 
the  division  between  Julesburg  and  Rock} 
Ridge,  with  headquarters  at  Horseshc 
Station,  thirty-six  miles  west  of  Fort  La- 
ramie,  in  what  is  now  Wyoming.  Armec 
with  this  letter,  young  Cody  accompaniec 
Simpson's  wagon-train  to  Laramie,  anc 
soon  found  Superintendent  Slade.  The 
superintendent,  observing  the  lad's  tender 
years  and  frail  stature,  was  skeptical  of 
his  ability  to  serve  as  a  pony  rider ;  but  or 
learning  that  Cody  was  the  boy  who  hac 
already  given  satisfactory  service  as  a  sub- 
stitute some  months  before,  at  once  en- 
gaged him  and  assigned  him  to  the  perilous 
run  of  seventy-six  miles  between  Rec 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     131 

Buttes  and  Three  Crossings.  For  some 
weeks  all  went  well.  Then,  one  day  when 
he  reached  his  terminal  at  Three  Crossings, 
Cody  found  that  his  successor  who  was  to 
have  taken  the  mail  out,  had  been  killed 
the  night  before.  As  there  was  no  extra 
rider  available,  it  fell  to  young  Cody  to 
fill  the  dead  courier's  place  until  a  succes- 
sor could  be  procured.  The  lad  was  un- 
daunted and  anxious  for  the  added  re- 
sponsibility. Within  a  moment  he  was 
off  on  a  fresh  horse  for  Rocky  Ridge, 
eighty-five  miles  away.  Notwithstanding 
the  dangers  and  great  fatigue  of  the  trip, 
Cody  rode  safely  from  Three  Crossings  to 
his  terminal  and  returned  with  the  east- 
bound  mail,  going  back  over  his  own  divi- 
sion and  into  Red  Buttes  without  delay  or 
mishap  —  an  aggregate  run  of  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  miles.  This  was 
probably  the  longest  continuous  perform- 


132          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

ance  without  a  formal  rest  period  in  the 
history  of  this  or  any  other  courier  service. 
Not  long  afterward,  Cody  was  chased 
by  a  band  of  Sioux  Indians  while  making 
one  of  his  regular  trips.  The  savages  were 
armed  with  revolvers,  and  for  a  few  min- 
utes made  it  lively  for  the  young  messen- 
ger. But  the  superior  speed  and  endurance 
of  his  steed  soon  told ;  lying  flat  on  the  ani- 
mal's neck,  he  quickly  distanced  his  as- 
sailants and  thundered  into  Sweetwater, 
the  next  station,  ahead  of  schedule.  Here 
he  found  —  as  so  often  happened  in  the 
history  of  the  express  service  —  that  the 
place  had  been  raided,  the  keeper  slain,  and 
the  horses  driven  off.  There  was  nothing 
to  do  but  drive  his  tired  pony  twelve  miles 
further  to  Ploutz  Station,  where  he  got  a 
fresh  horse,  briefly  reported  what  he  had 
observed,  and  completed  his  run  without 
mishap. 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     133 

On  another  occasion  *  it  became  mys- 
teriously rumored  that  a  certain  Pony  Ex- 
press pouch  would  carry  a  large  sum  of 
currency.  Knowing  that,  there  was  great 
likelihood  of  some  bandits  —  or  "  road 
agents  "  as  they  were  commonly  called  — 
getting  wind  of  the  consignment  and  at- 
tempting a  holdup,  Cody  hit  upon  a  little 
emergency  ruse.  He»provided  himself  with 
an  extra  mochila  which  he  stuffed  with 
waste  paperstand  placed  over  the  saddle  in 
the  regular*  position.  The  pouch  contain- 
ing the  currency  was  hidden  under  a  special 
saddle  blanket.  With  his  customary  re- 
volver loaded  and  ready,  Cody  then  started. 
His  suspicions  were  soon  confirmed,  for  on 
reaching  a  particularly  secluded  spot,  two 
highwaymen  stepped  from  concealment, 
and  with  levelled  rifles  compelled  the  boy 
to  stop,  at  the  same  time  demanding  the  let- 

*  Inman  &  Cody,  Salt  Lake  Trail 


134          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

ter  pouch.  Holding  up  his  hands  as  or- 
dered, Cody  began  to  remonstrate  with 
the  thugs  for  robbing  the  express,  at  the 
same  time  declaring  to  them  that  they 
would  hang  for  their  meanness  if  they  car- 
ried out  their  plans.  In  reply  to  this  they 
told  Cody  that  they  would  take  their  own 
chances.  They  knew  what  he  carried  anc 
they  wanted  it.  They  had  no  particular 
desire  to  harm  him,  but  unless  he  handec 
over  the  pouch  without  delay  they  wouk 
shoot  him  full  of  holes,  and  take  it  anyhow 
Knowing  that  to  resist  meant  certain 
death  Cody  began  slowly  to  unfasten  the 
dummy  pouch,  still  protesting  with  much 
indignation.  Finally,  after  having  loosec 
it,  he  raised  the  pouch  and  hurled  it  at  the 
head  off  the  nearest  outlaw,  who  dodged 
half  amused  at  the  young  fellow's  spirit 
Both  men  were  thus  taken  slightly  off  their 
guard,  and  that  instant  the  rider  acted  like 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL      135 

a  flash.  Whipping  out  his  revolver,  he  dis- 
abled the  farther  villain;  and  before  the 
other,  who  had  stooped  to  recover  the  sup- 
posed mail  sack,  could  straighten  up  or  use 
a  weapon,  Cody  dug  the  spurs  into  his 
horse,  knocked  him  down,  rode  over  him 
and  was  gone.  Before  the  half-stunned 
robber  could  recover  himself  to  shoot, 
horse  and  rider  were  out  of  range  and  run- 
ning like  mad  for  the  next  station,  where 
they  arrived  ahead  of  schedule. 

The  following  is  a  partial  list,  so  far  as 
is  known, *  of  the  men  who  rode  the  Pony 
Express  and  contributed  to  the  lasting 
fame  of  the  enterprise : 

Baughn,  Melville  Bucklin,  Jimmy 

Beatley,  Jim  Carr,  William 

"  Boston  "  Carrigan,  William 

Boulton,  William  Gates,  Bill 

Brink,  James  W.  Clark,  Jimmy 

Burnett,  John  Cliff,  Charles 

*  Root  and  Connelley's  Overland  Stage  to  Calif  or- 


136 


THE  PONY  EXPRESS 


Cody,  William  F. 
Egan,  Major 
Ellis,  J.  K. 
Faust,  H.  J. 
Fisher,  John 
Frey,  Johnnie 
Gentry,  Jim 
Gilson,  Jim 
Hamilton,  Sam 
Haslam,  Robert 
Hogan      (first    name 

missing) 
Huntington,  Let 
"  Irish  Tom  " 
James,  William 
Jenkins,  Will  D. 
KelleyJayG. 
Keetley,  Jack 


"  Little  Yank" 
Martin,  Bob 
McCallJ.G. 
McDonald,  James 
McNaughton,  Jim 
Moore,  Jim 
Perkins,  Josh 
Rand,  Theodore 
Richardson,  Johnson 
Riles,  Eart 
Rising,  Don  C. 
Roff,  Harry 
Spurr,  George 
Thacher,  George 
Towne,  George 
Wallace,  Henry 
Westcott,  Dan 
Zowgaltz,  Jose. 


Many  of  these  men  were  rough  and  un- 
lettered. Many  died  deaths  of  violence. 
The  bones  of  many  lie  in  unknown  graves. 
Some  doubtless  lie  unburied  somewhere  in 
the  great  West,  in  the  winning  of  which 
their  lives  were  lost.  Yet  be  it  always  re- 
membered, that  in  the  history  of  the  Amer 


TRAIL  AND  HONOR  ROLL     137 

ican  nation  they  played  an  important  part. 
They  were  bold-hearted  citizen  knights  to 
whom  is  due  the  honors  of  uncrowned 
kings. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EARLY  OVERLAND  MAIL  ROUTES 

IN  THE  history  of  overland  transporta- 
tion in  America,  the  Pony  Express  is 
but  one  in  a  series  of  many  enterprises.  As 
emphasized  at  the  beginning  of  this  book, 
its  importance  lay  in  its  opportuneness ;  in 
the  fact  that  it  appeared  at  the  psychol- 
ogical moment,  and  fitted  into  the  course 
of  events  at  a  critical  period,  prior  to  the 
completion  of  the  telegraph;  and  when 
some  form  of  rapid  transit  between  the 
Missouri  River  and  the  Pacific  Coast  was 
absolutely  needed.  To  give  adequate  set- 
ting to  this  story,  a  brief  account  of  the 
leading  overland  routes,  of  which  the  Pony 
Express  was  but  one,  seems  proper. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, three  great  thoroughfares  had  been 
138 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES          139 

established  from  the  Missouri,  westward 
across  the  continent.  These  were  the  Santa 
Fe,  the  Salt  Lake,  and  the  Oregon  trails. 
All  had  important  branches  and  lesser 
stems,  and  all  are  today  followed  by  im- 
portant railroads  —  a  splendid  testimo- 
nial to  the  ability  of  the  pioneer  pathfind- 
ers in  selecting  the  best  routes. 

Of  these  trails,  that  leading  to  Santa 
Fe  was  the  oldest,  having  been  fully  estab- 
lished before  1824.  The  Salt  Lake  and 
Oregon  routes  date  some  twenty  years 
later,  coming  into  existence  in  the  decade 
between  1840  and  1850.  It  is  incidentally 
with  the  Salt  Lake  trail  that  the  story  of 
the  Pony  Express  mainly  deals. 

The  Mormon  settlement  of  Utah  in 
1847-48,  followed  almost  immediately  by 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  led 
to  the  first  mail  route  *  across  the  country, 

*  Authority  for  Early  Mail  Routes  is  Root  and 
Connelley's  Overland  Stage  to  California. 


140          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

west  of  the  Missouri.  This  was  known  as 
the  "  Great  Salt  Lake  Mail,"  and  the  first 
contract  for  transporting  it  was  let  July 
1,  1850,  to  Samuel  H.  Woodson  of  Inde- 
pendence, Missouri.  By  terms  of  this 
agreement,  Woodson  was  to  haul  the  mail 
monthly  from  Independence  on  the  Mis- 
souri River  to  Salt  Lake  City,  twelve  hun- 
dred miles,  and  return.  Woodson  later  ar- 
ranged with  some  Utah  citizens  to  carry  a 
mail  between  Salt  Lake  City  and  Fort  La- 
ramie,  the  service  connecting  with  the  Inde- 
pendence mail  at  the  former  place.  This 
supplementary  line  was  put  into  operation 
August  i,  1851. 

In  the  early  fifties,  while  the  California 
gold  craze  was  still  on,  a  monthly  route 
was  laid  out  between  Sacramento  and  Salt 
Lake  City.*  This  service  was  irregular 

*The  reader  will  keep  in  mind  that  during  the 
early  days  of  California  history,  practically  all  com- 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES 

and  unreliable;  and  since  the  growing 
population  of  California  demanded  a  di- 
rect overland  route,  a  four  year  monthly 
contract  was  granted  to  W.  F.  McGraw, 
a  resident  of  Maryland.  His  subsidy  from 
Congress  was  $13,500.00  a  year.  In  those 
days  it  often  took  a  month  to  get  mail  from 
Independence  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  about 
six  weeks  for  the  entire  trip.  Although 
McGraw  charged  $180.00  fare  for  each 
passenger  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  $300.00 
to  California,  he  failed,  in  1856.  The  un- 
expired  contract  was  then  let  to  the  Mor- 
mon firm  of  Kimball  &  Co.,  and  they  kept 
the  route  in  operation  until  the  Mormon 
troubles  of  1857  when  the  Government 
abrogated  the  agreement. 

In  the  summer  of  1857,  General  Albert 
Sidney  Johnston,  later  of  Civil  War  fame, 

munication  between  that  locality  and  the  East  was 
carried  on  by  steamship  from  New  York  via  Panama. 


142          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

was  sent  out  with  a  Federal  army  of  five 
thousand  men  to  invade  Utah.  After  a 
rather  fruitless  campaign,  Jqhnston  win- 
tered at  Fort  Bridger,  in  what  is  south- 
western Wyoming,  not  far  from  the  Utah 
line.  During  this  interval,  army  supplies 
were  hauled  from  Fort  Leavenworth  with 
only  a  few  way  stations  for  changing 
teams.  This  improvised  line,  carrying 
mail  occasionally,  which  went  over  the  old 
Mormon  trail  via  South  Pass,  and  Forts 
Kearney,  Laramie,  and  Bridger,  was  for 
many  months  the  only  service  available  for 
this  entire  region. 

The  next  contract  for  getting  mail  into 
Utah  was  let  in  1858  to  John  M.  Hock- 
aday  of  Missouri.  Johnston's  army  was 
then  advancing  from  winter  quarters  at 
Bridger  toward  the  valley  of  Great  Salt 
Lake,  and  the  Government  wanted  mail 
oftener  then  once  a  month.  In  considera- 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         143 

tion  of  $190,000.00  annually  which  was 
to  be  paid  in  monthly  installments,  Hock- 
aday  agreed  to  put  on  a  weekly  mail.  This 
route,  which  ran  from  St.  Joseph  to  Salt 
Lake  City,  was  later  combined  with  a  line 
that  had  been  running  from  Salt  Lake  to 
Sacramento,  thus  making  a  continuous 
weekly  route  to  and  from  California.  For 
the  combined  route  the  Government  paid 
$320,000.00  annually.  Its  actual  yearly 
receipts  were  $5,142.03. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  the  vicinity  of 
Denver  in  the  summer  of  1858  caused  an- 
other wild  excitement  and  a  great  rush 
which  led  to  the  establishment  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1859  of  the  Leavenworth  and 
Pike's  Peak  Express,  from  the  Missouri  to 
Denver.  As  then  traveled,  this  route  was 
six  hundred  and  eighty-seven  miles  in 
length.  The  line  was  operated  by  Russell, 
Majors,  and  Waddell,  and  that  same  year 


THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

they  took  over  Hockaday's  business.  As 
has  already  been  stated,  the  new  firm  of 
Pony  Express  fame  —  called  the  Central 
Overland  California  and  Pike's  Peak  Ex- 
press  Co. —  consolidated  the  old  California 
line,  which  had  been  run  in  two  sections, 
East  and  West,  with  the  Denver  line.  In 
addition  to  the  Pony  Express  it  carried  on 
a  big  passenger  and  freighting  business  to 
and  from  Denver  and  California. 

Turning  now  to  the  lines  that  were 
placed  in  commission  farther  South.  The 
first  overland  stage  between  Santa  Fe  and 
Independence  was  started  in  May,  1849. 
This  was  also  a  monthly  service,  and  by 
1850  it  was  fully  equipped  with  the  famous 
Concord  coaches,  which  vehicles  were  soon 
to  be  used  on  every  overland  route  in  the 
West.  Within  five  years,  this  route,  which 
was  eight  hundred  fifty  miles  in  length  and 
followed  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  now  the  route 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         145 

of  the  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe 
railroad,  had  attained  great  importance. 
The  Government  finally  awarded  it  a 
yearly  subsidy  of  $10,990.00,  but  as  the 
trail  had  little  or  no  military  protection 
except  at  Fort  Union,  New  Mexico,  and 
for  hundreds  of  miles  was  exposed  to  the 
attacks  of  prairie  Indians,  the  contractors 
complained  because  of  heavy  losses  and 
sought  relief  of  the  Post  Office  and  War 
Departments.  Finally  they  were  released 
from  their  old  contract  and  granted  a  new 
one  paying  $25,000.00  annually,  but  even 
then  they  fell  behind  $5,000.00  per  year. 

By  special  act  passed  August  3,  1854, 
Congress  laid  out  a  monthly  mail  route 
from  Neosho,  Missouri,  to  Albuquerque, 
New  Mexico,  with  an  annual  subsidy  of 
$17,000.00.  Since  the  Mexican  War  this 
region  had  come  to  be  of  great  commercial 
and  military  importance.  A  little  later, 


146          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

in  March  1855,  the  route  was  changed  by 
the  Government  to  run  monthly  from 
Independence  and  Kansas  City,  Missouri, 
to  Stockton,  California,  via  Albuquerque, 
and  the  contractors  were  awarded  a  yearly 
bonus  of  $80,000.00.  This  line  was  also 
a  financial  failure. 

The  early  overland  routes  were  granted 
large  subsidies  and  the  privilege  of  charg- 
ing high  rates  for  passengers  and  freight. 
To  the  casual  observer  it  may  seem  strange 
that  practically  all  these  lines  operated 
at  a  disastrous  loss.  It  should  be  noted 
however,  that  they  covered  an  immense 
territory,  many  portions  of  which  were 
occupied  by  hostile  Indians.  It  is  no  easy 
task  to  move  military  forces  and  supplies 
thousands  of  miles  through  a  wilderness. 
Furthermore,  the  Indians  were  elusive  and 
hard  to  find  when  sought  by  a  considerable 
force.  They  usually  managed  to  attack 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         147 

when  and  where  they  were  least  expected. 
Consequently,  if  protection  were  secured 
at  all,  it  usually  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  stage 
companies  to  police  their  own  lines,  which 
was  expensive  business.  Often  they 
waged,  single-handed,  Indian  campaigns 
of  considerable  importance,  and  the  fron- 
tiersmen whom  they  could  assemble  for 
such  duty  were  sometimes  more  effective 
than  the  soldiers  who  were  unfamiliar  with 
the  problems  of  Indian  warfare. 

Added  to  these  difficulties  were  those 
incident  to  severe  weather,  deep  snow,  and 
dangerous  streams,  since  regular  highways 
and  bridges  were  almost  unknown  in  the 
regions  traversed.  Not  to  mention  the 
handicap  and  expense  which  all  these 
natural  obstacles  entailed,  business  on 
many  lines  was  light,  and  revenues  low. 

News  from  Washington  about  the  crea- 
tion of  the  new  territory  of  Utah  —  in 


148          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

September  1850  —  was  not  received  in 
Salt  Lake  City  until  January  1851.  The 
report  reached  Utah  by  messenger  from 
California,  having  come  around  the  conti- 
nent by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
The  winters  of  1851-52,  and  1852-53  were 
frightfully  severe  and  such  expensive  de- 
lays were  not  uncommon.  The  November 
mail  of  1856  was  compelled  to  winter  in 
the  mountains. 

In  the  winter  of  1856-57  no  steady  serv- 
ice could  be  maintained  between  Salt  Lake 
City  and  Missouri  on  account  of  bad 
weather.  Finally,  after  a  long  delay,  the 
postmaster  at  Salt  Lake  City  contracted 
with  the  local  firm  of  Little,  Hanks,  and 
Co.,  to  get  a  special  mail  to  and  from 
Independence.  This  was.  accomplished, 
but  the  ordeal  required  seventy-eight  days, 
during  which  men  and  animals  suffered 
terribly  from  cold  and  hunger.  The  firm 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         149 

received  $1,500.00  for  its  trouble.  The 
Salt  Lake  route  returned  to  the  Govern- 
ment a  yearly  income  of  only  $5,000.00. 

The  route  from  Independence  to  Stock- 
ton, which  cost  Uncle  Sam  $80,000.00  a 
year,  collected  in  nine  months  only  $1,- 
255.00  in  postal  revenues,  whereupon  it 
was  abolished  July  1st,  1859. 

By  the  close  of  1859  there  were  at  least 
six  different  mail  routes  across  the  conti- 
nent from  the  Missouri  to  the  Pacific  Coast. 
They  were  costing  the  Government  a  total 
of  $2,184,696.00  and  returning  $339,- 
747.34.  The  most  expensive  of  these  lines 
was  the  New  York  and  New  Orleans 
Steamship  Company  route,  which  ran  semi- 
monthly from  New  York  to  San  Francisco 
via  Panama.  This  service  cost  $738,- 
250.00  annually  and  brought  in  $229,- 
979.69.  While  the  steamship  people  did 
not  have  the  frontier  dangers  to  confront 


150          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

them,  they  were  operating  over  a  round 
about  course,  several  thousand  miles  in  ex 
tent,  and  the  volume  of  their  postal  busi 
ness  was  simply  inadequate  to  meet  th 
expense   of  maintaining   their  business.* 
The  steamer  schedule  was  about  fou 
weeks  in  either  direction,  and  the  rapidly 
increasing  population  of  California  soon 

*  In  June,   1860,  Congress  got  into  trouble  wit 
this  company  over  postal  compensations.    The  steam 
ship    company,    it    appears,    thought    its    remuner 
ation  too  low  and  it  further  protested  that  the  d 
version  of   mail   traffic,   due   to   the  daily   Overlam 
Stage  Line  and  the  Pony  Express  would  reduce  it 
revenues    still    further.    Congress   finally   adjournec 
without  effecting  a  settlement,  and  the  mail,  whic 
was  far  too  heavy  for  the  overland  facilities  to  handl 
at  that  time,  was  piling  up  by  the  ton  awaiting  ship 
ment.     Matters  were  getting  serious  when  Corneliu 
Vanderbilt    came    to    the    Government's    relief    am 
agreed    to    furnish    steamer    service    until    Congress 
assembled    in    March,    1861,    provided    the    Federal 
authorities  would  assure  him  "  a  fair  and  adequate 
compensation."     This    agreement    was    effected   and 
the  affair  settled  as  agreed.   At  the  expiration  of  the 
period,  the  war  and  the  growing  importance  of  the 
overland  route  made  steamship  service  by  way  of  the 
Isthmus  quite  obsolete. 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         151 

demanded,  in  the  early  fifties,  a  faster  and 
more  frequent  service.  Agitation  to  that 
end  was  thus  started,  and  during  the  last 
days  of  Pierce's  administration,  in  March 
1857,  the  "  Overland  Mail "  bill  was 
passed  by  Congress  and  signed  by  the 
President.  This  act  provided  that  the  Post- 
master-General should  advertise  for  bids 
until  June  30  following:  "for  the  con- 
veyance of  the  entire  letter  mail  from  such 
point  on  the  Mississippi  River  as  the  con- 
tractors may  select  to  San  Francisco,  Cal., 
for  six  years,  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  $300,- 
ooo  per  annum  for  semi-monthly,  $450,- 
poo  for  weekly,  or  $600,000  for  semi- 
iweekly  service  to  be  performed  semi- 
-monthly, weekly,  or  semi-weekly  at  the 
Option  of  the  Postmaster-General."  The 
jspecifications  also  stipulated  a  twenty-five 
|day  schedule,  good  coaches,  and  four-horse 
teams. 


158          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Bids  were  opened  July  i,  1857.    Nine 
were  submitted,  and  most  of  them  proposec 
starting  from  St.  Louis,  thence  going  over 
land  in  a  southwesterly  direction  usually 
via  Albuquerque.     Only  one  bid  proposec 
the  more  northerly  Central  route  via  Inde 
pendence,  Fort  Laramie,  and  Salt  Lake 
The  Postoffice  Department  was  opposed  tc 
this  trail,  and  its  attitude  had  been  con 
firmed  by  the  troubles  of  winter  travel  in 
the  past.    In  fact  this  route  had  been  a  fail 
ure  for  six  consecutive  winters,  due  to  th 
deep  snows  of  the  high  mountains  which  i 
crossed. 

On  July  2,  1857,  the  Postmaster  Gen 
eral  announced  the  acceptance  of  bid  No 
"  12,587  "  which  stipulated  a  forked  rout 
from     St.     Louis,     Missouri     and    from 
Memphis,  Tennessee,  the  lines  converging 
at  Little   Rock,   Arkansas.      Thence   the 
course  was  by  way  of  Preston,  Texas;  or 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         153 

as  nearly  as  might  be  found  advisable,  to 
the  best  point  in  crossing  the  Rio  Grande 
above  El  Paso,  and  not  far  from  Fort  Fil- 
more ;  thence  along  the  new  road  then  being 
opened  and  constructed  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  to  Fort  Yuma,  California; 
thence  through  the  best  passes  and  along 
the  best  valleys  for  safe  and  expeditious 
staging  to  San  Francisco.  On  September 
15  following,  a  six  year  contract  was  let 
for  this  route.  The  successful  firm  at  once 
became  known  as  the  "  Butterfield  Over- 
land Mail  Company."  Among  the  firm 
members  were  John  Butterfield,  Wm.  B. 
Dinsmore,  D.  N.  Barney,  Wm.  G.  Fargo 
and  Hamilton  Spencer.  The  extreme 
length  of  the  route  agreed  upon  from  St. 
Louis  to  San  Francisco  was  two  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  twenty-nine  miles;  the 
most  southern  point  was  six  hundred  miles 
south  of  South  Pass  on  the  old  Salt  Lake 


154          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

route.  Because  of  the  out-of-the-way 
southern  course  followed,  two  and  one 
half  days  more  than  necessary  were  nomi- 
nallyrequired  in  making  the  journey.  Yet 
the  postal  authorities  believed  that  this 
would  be  more  than  offset  by*the  southerly 
course  being  to  a  great  extent  free  from 
winter  snows. 

On  September  15,  1858,  after  elaborate 
preparations,  the  overland  mails  started 
from  San  Francisco  and  St.  Louis  on  the 
twenty-five  day  schedule  —  which  was 
three  daysiless  than  that  of  the  water  route. 
The  postage  rate  was  ten  cents  for  each 
half  ounce;  the  passenger  fare  was  one 
hundred  dollars  in  gold.  The  first  trip 
was  made  in  twenty- four  days,  and  in  each 
of  the  terminal  cities  big  celebrations  were 
held  in  honor  of  the  event.  And  yet  today, 
four  splendid  lines  of  railway  cover  this 
distance  in  about  three  days! 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         155 

These  stages  —  to  use  the  west-bound 
route  as  an  illustration  —  traveled  in  an 
elliptical  course  through  Springfield,  Mis- 
souri, and  Fayetteville,  Arkansas,  to  Van 
Buren,  Arkansas,  where  the  Memphis  mail 
was  received.  Continuing  in  a  southwest- 
erly course,  they  passed  through  Indian 
Territory  and  the  Choctaw  Indian  reserve 
-now  Oklahoma  —  crossed  the  Red 
River  at  Calvert's  Ferry,  then  on  through 
Sherman,  Fort  Chadbourne  and  Fort  Bel- 
knap,  Texas,  through  Guadaloupe  Pass  to 
El  Paso;  thence  up  the  Rio  Grande  River 
through  the  Mesilla  Valley,  and  into 
western  New  Mexico  —  now  Arizona  — 
to  Tucson.  Then  the  journey  led  up  the 
Gila  River  to  Arizona  City,  across  the 
Mojave  desert  in  Southern  California  and 
finally  through  the  San  Joaquin  Valley  to 
San  Francisco. 

Today  a  traveler  could  cover  nearly  the 


156          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

same  route,  leaving  St.  Louis  over  the 
Frisco  Railroad,  transferring  to  the  Texas 
Pacific  at  Fort  Worth,  and  taking  the 
Southern  Pacific  at  El  Paso  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  trip. 

As  has  been  shown,  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War  in  the  spring  of  1861  made  it 
necessary  for  the  Federal  Government  to 
transfer  this  big  and  important  route 
further  north  to  get  it  beyond  the  latitude 
of  the  Confederacy.  Hence  the  Southern 
route  was  formally  abandoned  *  on  March 
12,  1861,  and  the  equipment  removed  to 
the  Central  or  Salt  Lake  trail  where  a  daily 
service  was  inaugurated.  About  three 
months  was  necessary  to  move  all  the  out- 
fits and  in  July  1861,  the  first  daily  over- 
land mail  —  running  six  times  a  week  - 

*  The  contractors  are  said  to  have  been  awarded 
$50,000  by  the  Government  for  their  trouble  in  hav- 
ing the  agreement  broken. 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         157 

was  started  between  St.  Joseph  and  Placer- 
ville,  California,  1,920  miles  by  the  way 
of  Forts  Kearney,  Bridger,  and  Salt  Lake 
City. 

The  Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  Railroad 
had  been  built  into  St.  Joseph  and  was 
doing  business  by  February  1859.  For 
some  time  that  city  enjoyed  the  honor  of 
being  the  eastern  stage  terminal ;  but  with- 
in a  year  the  railroad  was  extended  to 
Atchison,  about  twenty  miles  down  the 
stream.  The  latter  place  is  situated  on  a 
bend  of  the  river  fourteen  miles  west  of  St. 
Joseph,  and  so  the  terminal  honors  soon 
passed  to  Atchison  since  its  westerly  loca- 
tion shortened  the  haul. 

In  transferring  the  Butterfield  line  from 
the  Southern  to  the  Central  route,  it  was 
merged  with  the  Central  Overland  Cali- 
fornia and  Pike's  Peak  Express  Company 
which  already  included  the  Leavenworth 


158          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

and  Pike's  Peak  Express  Company,  under 
the  leadership  of  General  Bela  M.  Hughes. 
This  line  was  known  to  the  Government 
as  the  Central  Overland  California  Route. 
As  soon  as  the  transfer  was  completed, 
through  California  stages  were  started  on 
an  eighteen  day  schedule  —  a  full  week 
less  time  than  had  been  required  by  the 
Butterfield  route,  and  ten  days  less  than 
that  of  the  Panama  steamers.  This  was 
the  most  famous  of  all  the  stage  routes, 
and  except  for  three  interruptions,  due  to 
Indian  outbreaks  in  1862,  1864,  and  1865, 
it  did  business  continuously  for  several 
years. 

Within  a  few  months  came  another 
change  of  proprietorship,  the  route  passing 
on  a  mortgage  foreclosure  into  the  hands 
of  Benjamin  Holladay,  a  famous  stage 
line  promoter,  late  in  1861.  Early  the 
following  year  Holladay  reorganized  the 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES          159 

management  under  the  name  of  the  Over- 
land Stage  Line.  This  seems  to  have  been 
what  today  is  technically  known  as  a  hold- 
ing company;  for  until  the  expiration  of 
the  old  Butterfield  contract  in  1863,*  he 
allowed  the  business  east  of  Salt  Lake  City 
to  be  carried  on  by  the  old  C.  O.  C.  &  P. 
P.  Co. ;  west  of  Salt  Lake,  the  new  Over- 
land Line  allowed,  or  sublet  the  through 
traffic  to  a  vigorous  subsidiary,  the  Pioneer 
Stage  Line.f 

Holladay  was  fortunate  in  securing  a 
new  mail  contract  for  the  Central  route 
which  he  now  controlled.  For  supplying 
a  six  day  letter  mail  service  from  the  Mis- 

*  See  page  153.  Holladay  secured  possession  of 
the  outfits  of  the  C.  O.  C.  &  P.  P.  Exp.  Co.,  between 
the  Missouri  and  Salt  Lake  City. 

t  The  Pioneer  Line  which  had  recently  come  into 
power  and  prominence  had  gained  possession  of  the 
equipment  west  of  Salt  Lake.  This  line  was  owned 
by  Louis  and  Charles  McLane.  Louis  McLane  after- 
ward became  President  of  the  Wells  Fargo  Express 
Co. 


160          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

souri  to  Placerville  together  with  a  way 
mail  to  and  from  Denver  and  Salt  Lake 
City,  he  was  paid  $1,000,000  a  year  for 
the  three  years  beginning  July  i,  1861. 
At  the  expiration  of  this  period  he  was  to 
get  $840,000. 

In  the  meantime  gold  was  discovered  in 
Idaho  and  Montana,  and  Holladay,  en- 
couraged by  his  big  subsidy  from  the  Gov- 
ernment, put  stage  lines  into  Virginia  City, 
Montana,  and  Boise  City,  Idaho. 

In  1866  the  Butterfield  Overland  Des- 
patch, an  express  and  fast  freight  line,  was 
started  above  the  Smoky  Hill  route  from 
Topeka  and  Leavenworth  across  Kansas  to 
Denver.  Within  a  short  time  this  organ- 
ization failed,  mainly  because  of  the  heavy 
expense  caused  by  Indian  depredations, 
and  was  consolidated  with  the  Holladay 
Company.  Just  prior  to  this  transfer,  Mr. 
Holladay  received  from  the  Colorado  Ter- 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         161 

ritorial  legislature  a  charter  for  the  "  Hol- 
laday  Overland  Mail  and  Express  Com- 
pany," which  was  the  full  and  formal 
name  of  the  new  concern.  This  corpora- 
tion now  owned  and  controlled  stage  lines 
aggregating  thirty-three  hundred  miles. 
It  brought  the  service  up  to  the  highest 
point  of  efficiency  and  used  only  the  best 
animals  and  vehicles  it  was  possible  to 
obtain. 

In  addition  to  his  federal  mail  bonus, 
Holladay  had  the  following  rates  for  pas- 
senger traffic  in  force: 
In  1863,  from  Atchison  to  Denver  $  75.00 
In   1863,  from  Atchison  to  Salt 

Lake  City    150.00 

In  1863,  from  Atchison  to  Placer- 

ville    225.00 

In  1865,  on  account  of  the  rise  of  gold 
and  the  depreciation  of  currency,  these 
rates  were  increased;  the  fare  from  the 


162          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Missouri  River  to  Denver  was  changed  to 
$175.000;  to  Salt  Lake  $350.00.  The 
California  rate  varied  from  $400.00  to 
$500.00.  A  year  later  the  fare  to  Virginia 
City,  Montana,  was  fixed  at  $350.00  anc 
the  rate  to  Salt  Lake  City  reduced  to 
$225.00. 

These  high  rates  and  Indian  dangers 
did  not  seem  to  check  the  desire  on  the 
part  of  the  public  to  make  the  overlanc 
trip.  Stages  were  almost  always  crowded, 
and  it  was  usually  necessary  for  one  to 
apply  for  reservations  several  days  in  ad- 
vance. 

Late  in  the  year  1866,  Holladay's  entire 
properties  *  were  purchased  by  Wells 
Fargo  and  Co.  This  was  a  new  concern, 

*  Holladay  is  said  to  have  received  one  million 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars  cash,  and  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  in  express  company  stock  for 
his  interests.  Besides  these  amounts  which  coverec 
only  the  animals,  rolling  stock,  stations,  and  inci- 


EARLY  MAIL  ROUTES         163 

recently  chartered  by  Colorado,  which  had 
been  quietly  gaining  power.  Within  a 
short  time  it  had  exclusive  control  of  prac- 
tically all  the  stage,  express,  and  freight- 
ing business  in  the  West  and  this  business  it 
held. 

Meanwhile  the  overland  stage  and 
freight  lines  were  rapidly  shortening  on 
account  of  the  building  of  the  Pacific  rail- 
roads, and  the  terminals  of  the  through 
routes  became  merely  the  temporary  ends 
of  the  fast  growing  railway  lines.  By  the 
early  autumn  of  1866,  the  Kansas  Pacific 
had  reached  Junction  City,  Kansas,  and 
the  Union  Pacific  was  at  Fort  Kearney, 
Nebraska.  The  golden  era  of  the  overland 
stage  business  was  from  1858  to  1866. 
After  that,  the  old  through  routes  were  but 

dental  equipment,  Wells  Fargo  and  Co.  had  to  pay 
full  market  value  for  all  grain,  hay  and  provisions 
along  the  line,  amounting  to  nearly  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars  more. 


164          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

fragments  "  between  the  tracks "  of  the 
Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific  roads 
which  were  building  East  and  West 
toward  each  other. 

Wells  Fargo  &  Co.,  however,  clung  to 
these  fragments  until  the  lines  met  on 
May  loth,  1869,  and  a  continuous  trans- 
continental railroad  was  completed.  Then 
they  turned  their  attention  to  organizing 
mountain  stage  and  express  lines  in  the 
railroadless  regions  of  the  West, —  some 
of  which  still  exist.  And  they  also  turned 
their  energies  to  the  railway  express  busi- 
ness, in  which  capacity  this  great  firm,  the 
last  of  the  old  stage  companies,  is  now 
known  the  world  over. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PASSING  OF  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

WHEN  Edward  Creighton  completed 
the  Pacific  telegraph,  and,  on 
October  24,  1861,  began  sending  messages 
by  wire  from  coast  to  coast,  the  California 
Pony  Express  formally  went  out  of  exist- 
ence. For  over  three  months  since  July  i, 
it  had  been  paralleled  by  the  daily  over- 
land stage;  yet  the  great  efficiency  of  the 
semi-weekly  pony  line  in  offering  quick 
letter  service  won  and  retained  its  popu- 
larity to  the  very  end  of  its  career. 
And  this  was  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  for 
several  weeks  before  its  discontinuance  the 
pony  men  had  ridden  only  between  the  ends 
of  the  fast  building  telegraph  which  was 
constructed  in  two  divisions  —  from  the 
165 


166          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  and  the  Missouri 
River  —  at  the  same  time,  the  lines  meet- 
ing near  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 

The  people  of  the  far  West  strongly 
protested  against  the  elimination  of  the 
pony  line  service.  Early  in  the  winter 
of  1862  it  became  rumored  —  perhaps 
wildly  —  that  the  Committee  on  Finance 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  had,  for 
reasons  of  economy,  stricken  out  the  appro- 
priation for  the  continuance  of  the  daily 
stage.  Whereupon  the  California  legis- 
lature *  addressed  a  set  of  joint  resolutions 
to  the  state's  delegation  in  Congress,  im- 
ploring not  only  that  the  Daily  Stage  be 
.retained,  but  that  the  Pony  Express  be  re- 
established. The  stage  was  continued  but 
the  pony  line  was  never  restored. 

As  a  financial  venture  the  Pony  Express 
failed  completely.  To  be  sure,  its  receipts 

*  Senate  Documents. 


PASSING  OF  THE  EXPRESS   167 

were  sometimes  heavy,  often  aggregating 
one  thousand  dollars  in  a  single  day.  But 
the  expenses,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
enormous.  Although  the  line  was  so  great 
a  factor  in  the  California  crisis,  and  in 
assisting  the  Federal  Government  to  retain 
the  Pacific  Coast,  it  was  the  irony  of  fate 
that  Congress  should  never  give  any  direct 
relief  or  financial  assistance  to  the  pony 
service.  So  completely  was  this  organiza- 
tion  neglected  by  the  government,  in  s6 
far  as  extending  financial  aid  was  con- 
cerned, that  its  financial  failure,  as  fore- 
seen by  Messrs.  Waddell  and  Majors,  was 
certain  from  the  beginning.  The  War  De- 
partment did  issue  army  revolvers  and  cart- 
ridges to  the  riders ;  and  the  Federal  troops 
when  available,  could  always  be  relied 
upon  to  protect  the  line.  Yet  it  was  gen- 
erally left  to  the  initiative  and  resource- 
fulness of  the  company  to  defend  itself  as 


168          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 


best  it  could  when  most  seriously  menaced 
by  Indians.  The  apparent  apathy  regard- 
ing this  valuable  branch  of  the  postal 
service  can  of  course  be  partially  excused 
from  the  fact  that  the  Civil  War  was  in 
1861  absorbing  all  the  energies  which  the 
Government  could  summon  to  its  com- 
mand. And  the  war,  furthermore,  was 
playing  havoc  with  our  national  finances 
and  piling  up  a  tremendous  national  debt, 
which  made  the  extension  of  pecuniary  re- 
lief to  quasi-private  operations  of  this 
kind,  no  matter  how  useful  they  were,  a 
remote  possibility. 

That  the  stage  lines  received  the  assist- 
ance they  did,  under  such  circumstances 
is  to  be  wondered  at.    Yet  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  at  the  outset  much  of  the 
political  support  necessary  to  secure  apprc 
priations  for  overland  mail  routes  was  de 
rived  from  southern  congressmen  who  wer 


PASSING  OF  THE  EXPRESS   169 

anxious  for  routes  of  communication  with 
the  West  coast,  especially  if  such  routes 
ran  through  the  Southwest  and  linked  the 
cotton-growing  states  with  California. 

At  the  very  beginning,  it  cost  about  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  equip  the 
Pony  Express  line  —  in  those  days  a  very 
considerable  outlay  of  capital  for  a  private 
corporation.  Besides  the  purchase  of  more 
than  four  hundred  high  grade  horses,  it 
cost  large  sums  of  money  to  build  and 
equip  stations  at  intervals  of  every  ten  or 
twelve  miles  throughout  the  long  route. 
The  wages  of  eighty  riders  and  about  four 
hundred  station  men,  not  to  mention  a 
score  of  Division  Superintendents  was  a 
large  item. 

Most  of  the  grain  used  along  the  line 
between  St.  Joseph  and  Salt  Lake  City 
was  purchased  in  Iowa  and  Missouri  and 
shipped  in  wagons  at  a  freight  rate  of  from 


170          THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

ten  cents  to  twenty  cents  a  pound.  Grain 
and  food  stuffs  for  use  between  Salt  Lake 
City  and  the  Sierras  were  usually  bought 
in  Utah  and  hauled  from  two  hundred  to 
seven  hundred  miles  to  the  respective  sta- 
tions. Hay,  gathered  wherever  wild  grasses 
could  be  found  and  cured,  often  had  to  be 
freighted  hundreds  of  miles. 

The  operating  expenses  of  the  line 
aggregated  about  thirty  thousand  dollars 
a  month,  which  would  alone  have  insured 
a  deficit  as  the  monthly  income  never 
equalled  that  amount. 

A  conspicuous  bill  of  expense  which 
helped  to  bankrupt  the  enterprise  was  for 
protection  against  the  savages.  While  this 
should  have  been  furnished  by  the  Govern- 
ment or  the  local  state  or  territorial  militia, 
it  was  the  fate  of  the  Company  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  one  of  the  worst  Indian  outbreaks 
of  that  decade. 


I 


PASSING  OF  THE  EXPRESS   171 


Early  in  1860,  shortly  after  the  Pony 
Express  was  started,  the  Pah-Utes,  men- 
tion of  whom  has  already  been  made,  be- 
gan hostilities  under  their  renowned  chief- 
tain Old  Winnemucca.  The  uprising 
spread;  soon  the  Bannocks  and  Shoshones 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  Utes,  and  the 
entire  territory  of  Nevada,  Eastern  Cali- 
fornia and  Oregon  was  aflame  with  Indian 
revolt.  Besides  devastating  many  whitej 
settlements  wherever  they  found  them,  the; 
Indians  destroyed  nearly  every  pony  sta-j 
tion  between  California  and  Salt  Lake,| 
murdered  numbers  of  employes,  and  ran 
off  scores  of  horses.  For  several  weeks  the 
service  was  paralyzed,  and  had  it  been  in 
the  hands  of  faint-hearted  men  it  would 
have  been  ended  then  and  there. 

The  climax  came  with  the  defeat  and 
massacre  of  Major  Ormsby's  force  of  about 
fifty  men  by  the  Utes  at  the  battle  of 


174  THE  PONY  EXPRESS 

they  hesitate  at  the  instigation  of  the  Gov- 
ernment a  little  later  to  reduce  their  postal 
rates  from  five  dollars  to  one  dollar  a  half 
ounce. 

This  condensed  statement  shows  the 
approximate  deficit  which  the  business 
incurred : 

To  equip  the  line .$100,000 

Maintenance     at     $30,000    per 

month  (for  sixteen  months)  .  480,000 
War  with  the  Utes  and  allied 

tribes   75,ooo 

Sundry  items    45,000 


Total $700,000 

The  receipts  are  said  to  have  been  about 
$500,000  leaving  a  debit  balance  of  $200,- 
ooo.  That  the  Company  changed  hands 
in  1861  is  not  surprising. 

While  the  Pony  Express  failed  in  a 
financial  way,  it  had  served  the  country 


PASSING  OF  THE  EXPRESS   175 

faithfully  and  well.  It  had  aided  an  im- 
perilled Government,  helped  to  tranquil- 
lize and  retain  to  the  Union  a  giant  com- 
monwealth, and  it  had  shown  the  practica- 
bility of  building  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road, and  keeping  it  open  for  traffic  regard- 
less of  winter  snows.  All  this  Pony  Ex- 
press did  and  more.  It  marked  the  supreme 
triumph  of  Americari  spirit,  of  God-fear- 
ing, man-defying  American  pluck  and  de- 
termination —  qualities  which  have  always 
characterized  the  winning  of  the  West. 


THE  END 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


I8NOV59, 


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